Recent political debate over President Joe Biden’s autopen-signed clemency orders has prompted fresh scrutiny of the constitutional foundations of presidential pardoning.

President Donald Trump has claimed such pardons are “VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT… because they were done by Autopen.”

Newsweek spoke with academic experts about long-standing legal guidance, with all pointing overwhelmingly in another direction.

Why It Matters

The fight over Biden’s autopen-signed pardons matters not because the legal questions are uncertain but because the dispute tests the durability of constitutional powers that have long been considered final.

As scholars and legal studies emphasize, presidential clemency is plenary and historically immune to reversal, and the form of a pre

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