Anthony Levandowski Pardoned • Hacker News Board

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#701

Post by AnimalMuppet » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 6:10 PM UTC

simonh wrote: post #417

WalterBright wrote: post #111

It's important to note the reason the President has the power to pardon anyone for any reason is it's one of the checks and balances, the Constitution is full of them. It's meant as a check to blunt overzealous prosecutions. Note that the President does not have the corresponding power to convict anyone. An interesting set of pardons was when Andrew Johnson pardoned all the rebels in the Confederacy, including Jeffer…

Sorry to break it to you, but as with many things in the US constitution, the reason the President can pardon people is because it's a modified copy of the British constitutional system of the time. The House is Parliament, the Senate is the House of Lords, and the president can pardon people because King George III could and the office of the presidency is a limited term elected kingship. Executive orders are Royal…

And the power of Congress to override the presidential veto is... what?

Any time you create a second system, you can see similarities to the first system. That doesn't make it a "modified copy"; it makes it a "rewrite that has some similarities".

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#702

Post by throwaway0a5e » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 6:10 PM UTC

DevX101 wrote: post #327

WalterBright wrote: post #111

It's important to note the reason the President has the power to pardon anyone for any reason is it's one of the checks and balances, the Constitution is full of them. It's meant as a check to blunt overzealous prosecutions. Note that the President does not have the corresponding power to convict anyone. An interesting set of pardons was when Andrew Johnson pardoned all the rebels in the Confederacy, including Jeffer…

Constitution has some excellent checks and balances but the blanket pardon isn't one of them. The pardon doesn't do anything to address systemic problems in the justice system and has become a channel for doling out political favors.

> The pardon doesn't do anything to address systemic problems in the justice system

Of course. If the laws are rotten it's the court's job to tell the legislature don't do that.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#703

Post by rootusrootus » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 6:10 PM UTC

emn13 wrote: post #648

ISL wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I strongly disagree. A check and balance has been on great display in recent weeks. A President has stated, "the election was a fraud, I should get another term". Congress has stated, "the election was correct. Moreover, we may choose to prevent you from holding office ever again." The judiciary agrees. That Congress is likely to deadlock is arguably a feature, not a bug. (That voters don't demand better from their c…

On nixon: might well be. But it's never happened so far, and that's because congress is hyper deadlocked by design and a ridiculously high bar of non-proportionally-represented senators need to agree to convict. Just compare that to other democracies that can switch their executive with a simple majority in one house, yet remain stable. As to congresses deadlock being a feature: it may well have been intentional; but…

> The US has a solid set of traditions and an extremely civic culture; and that's why it works

IMO this is something that I wish more citizens understood. They put way too much faith in the Constitution and don't realize that it's the tradition, the mythology of America that really holds this country together. If we lose that, we lose everything, and the Constitution won't save us.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#704

Post by joshuamorton » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 6:10 PM UTC

x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #421

DevX101 wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm for legalization of marijuana but think that's a terrible idea. This effectively makes one person the arbiter of law.

If you have laws that are passed with racial control in mind, such as our drug laws, then mass pardoning is an act of justice and not someone becoming the arbiter of law.

Consider the alternative: a president who announces they will blanket pardon all white people and no one else.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#705

Post by dionidium » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 6:12 PM UTC

Bakary wrote: post #530

dionidium wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d go further. Most current news is purely entertainment. You really don’t need to know everything that’s going on. Almost none of it is actionable. It’s fine as entertainment, but people are convinced they’re doing something important when they read the news, when as far as I can tell it’s just something they enjoy as a leisure activity.

I wholeheartedly agree. I am currently trying (and failing miserably) to quit news-watching altogether.

My current approach, for whatever it's worth: I subscribe to the Sunday print edition of my city's daily newspaper. For those too young to remember, this is the week's largest edition, which includes summaries of many of the week's stories. I read it over coffee on Sunday morning (away from my laptop). I'm roughly as informed as anybody else about the events of the day.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#706

Post by dragonwriter » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 6:12 PM UTC

DevX101 wrote: post #393

ortusdux wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically, a president could pardon all federal marijuana convictions, and announce that they will continue to do so for the remainder of their term. Basically, it could be used to address systemic problems in the federal court system. A large portion of Biden's term will probably be spent trying to return to norms, so I doubt anything like this would happen.

I'm for legalization of marijuana but think that's a terrible idea. This effectively makes one person the arbiter of law.

> I’m for legalization of marijuana but think that’s a terrible idea. This effectively makes one person the arbiter of law.

No, the Constitutional pardon power (in one direction, for criminal law only) does that already. The question is about how that position of arbiter will be used, not whether the President has it.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#707

Post by triceratops » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 6:13 PM UTC

__blockcipher__ wrote: post #611

1MachineElf wrote: post #532

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He was investigated for 2 years and is still accused to this day for Russian collusion. Pardoning either Snowden, who is in Russia right now, and Assange, who is accused of being a co-conspirator in the Russia collusion accusations, would be like throwing gasoline on that fire. I don't see how he could do it without alienating most of his establishment support, which he still needs after leaving office.

No, it's not about the Russia collusion hoax (yes it was a hoax btw). Simply put, Trump was threatened that if he pardons Assange, senate republicans (the establishment) would vote to convict. I wish he had the courage to call their bluff, because them convicting Trump would fragment the GOP to an extent that is irreversible, IMO. Most people who aren't Trump supporters don't appreciate the extent to which Trump's ba…

Not a hoax.

"there was knowing and complicit behavior between the Trump campaign and Russians that stopped short of direct coordination, which may constitute conspiracy."[1]

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mueller_report#Redacted_report...

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#708

Post by zarkov99 » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 6:14 PM UTC

Does anyone have some honest insight on why?

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#709

Post by dragonwriter » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 6:14 PM UTC

joshuamorton wrote: post #704

x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have laws that are passed with racial control in mind, such as our drug laws, then mass pardoning is an act of justice and not someone becoming the arbiter of law.

Consider the alternative: a president who announces they will blanket pardon all white people and no one else.

That’s…not the alternative.

I mean, I suppose its one of a near-infinite number of possible alternatives, but I don’t see how its an even relevant one. The discussion wasn’t about someone pardoning only black people, it was about pardoning all people convicted under a particular set of laws.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#710

Post by joshuamorton » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 6:15 PM UTC

triceratops wrote: post #692

briandear wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The federal government is the government of the individual states. A state is a sovereign entity. Each vote in the United Nations general assembly is identical regardless of the size of the country voting. Ireland’s vote is just as valuable as India’s. That’s the point of the United States — it’s a republic, not a democracy. As far as 1 WY vote being worth 4 Texas votes, that’s also irrelevant because the president i…

> The federal government is the government of the individual states. In that case, why aren't state legislatures or state governors voting for president and members of congress?

They did, originally. But then we passed the 17th amendment due to rampant bribery on the part of state leaders selling senate seats.