TThe hypocrisy is breathtaking. Yes, any father could do the same for a son. Yes, the boy is cleansed, he is forgiven, he is on the mend. Only bad people want to lock him up. Live and let live. Nevertheless, there is something monumental about the pardon by outgoing US President Joe Biden. Six months ago, he scored political points by denying pardoning his son Hunter Biden. Now that the election is over, he has.

The simple answer is: What’s new? President Gerald Ford pardoned his predecessor Richard Nixon; Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother and other figures whose families had donated to the Democrats; Donald Trump pardoned his son-in-law’s father and numerous shady aides. No one doubts that Trump will pardon a number of outrageous figures as president – perhaps even the rioters on Capitol Hill in 2021. We’ll wait to see if that includes an attempt to pardon himself from various pending prosecutions (although he did cannot extend powers to cases). brought to the state level).

Biden can claim some measure of justice, as Hunter Biden’s relatively minor convictions – for tax evasion and lying about his drug use while purchasing a gun – were frantically pursued by his political opponents. But then there was a similar political angle to the equally frantic prosecution of Trump’s business misdeeds by Democratic authorities in New York. The front page of the New York Times appeared in the tabloid newspaper cheerfully screaming, “GUILTY.”

Cynics – or as they would say, realists – will assure themselves that all this will soon be forgotten as in the past. Across the U.S. crime and punishment landscape—aspects of which still border on borderline anarchy—calibers are at stake. More important issues await us under a new Trump presidency.

But justice is a universal freedom, one that the United States wants to champion around the world. For a nation’s executive branch to claim the right – even constitutionally – to override justice must be wrong. The U.S. Constitution is based on express rights and freedoms protected by a separation of powers. The apparent purpose of Article Two, Section Two, was to empower the President in dealing with the Union army and state militias. It wasn’t about condoning crime. It was grossly abused. During the election, Democrats presented themselves as guardians of morality, with Biden praising Kamala Harris for having the “moral compass of a saint.” By reneging on his promise, Biden has undermined this.

The US Constitution is a wonderful thing. It has held the Union together, sometimes just barely, for two and a half centuries as global nations and empires turmoiled and crumbled. Its survival is based on two basic principles. The first is respect for the rights of often very different states to enact their local laws, such as those on abortion and gun control. The second possibility is a balanced division of federal powers between the judiciary, executive and legislative branches. This separation clearly needs to be strengthened in today’s deeply polarized American society.

But how? The Constitution’s ultimate task was to make its own reform nearly impossible. Sometimes, just sometimes, such reforms were achieved. The presidential pardon appears to be a reason for change.

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