The pardon power is a hot topic. Sai Prakash recently wrote a book on it. So did Jeff Toobin. My former colleague Frank Bowman has a book coming out on it in 2027. Of course, recent pardons by President Trump and President Biden help explain this interest.
The pardon power helps illustrate why of having a single executive is a problem. In many democracies, only the head of state has can pardon. This helps ensure that pardons are not done for partisan reasons.
We can’t do this with pardons. It’s unclear to what extent we can do even this with a power that is not vested exclusively in the President. Congress cannot give an executive power to another executive official who is independent of the President, unless that power is given the Vice-President. Maybe we should do that more often (it’s worth thinking about).