Were the Pardons Made by Clinton in his Final Weeks Constitutional
President William Jefferson Clinton, in his final weeks in office, issued 141 Presidential pardons and commuted 36 sentences. These pardons and commutations came under scrutiny because, in great part, of the number of recipients who had direct or indirect ties to the President. Critics have observed that Clinton’s last days in the Presidency were marked by a general attitude of indifference to the processes and that he did very little to leave office with dignity. Others have noted that Clinton’s pardons were wholly in keeping with the duties of the office, that he did not make pardons in any excess as related to other Presidents, and that the timing was simply the result of the pardons having been put off by many other more important parts of the job. It is the intent of this paper to examine the nature of the pardons and commutations made by President Clinton, and to offer the opinion that while some of the pardons did bypass normal procedures, all were constitutional.
