President Trump declared yesterday that Joe Biden’s pardons are invalid (because signed with the dreaded auto-pen and because Biden did not know who he was pardoning). People are piling on Trump and the ever-credulous media, pointing that the President cannot “declare” things and make them so.
True enough. But he can do something if he is serious about this: Order DOJ to prosecute people who otherwise received pardons, force those people to raise the pardon in court, have the government argue the pardon is invalid, and let the courts resolve the issue. Trump will lose–either because no one in DOJ will push this (not as certain as it used to be) or because the courts will reject the argument (certain, if it comes to it).
Trump is a child who relates to reality in a childish way. At the same time, the counter to Trump is not as simple as “he can’t do that.” While correct at the end of the day, a legal process must play out.
Update: A reader predicts that the court would find the validity of the pardon a non-justiciable political question–the court would not question the validity of a pardon that the President purported to issue (and determine to be valid). Having accepted that pardon, it will dismiss the new prosecution. This leaves us in the same place as above, but without the court engaging in independent analysis as to the pardon’s validity.