Fake news was working overtime on Monday by declaring, without authority, that the “full, complete” presidential pardons related to the 2020 presidential election cannot protect against bogus state charges arising from that election. Corporate media wrongly insisted that the pardon clause in the U.S. Constitution applies only to charges brought by federal prosecutors.
Not so. The pardon clause states that the president “shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.” Every attempt in court to narrow the scope of the pardon clause has failed.
Our system of dual sovereigns, federal and state, is subject to the supremacy clause, which means that state sovereignty cannot limit the scope of the pardon clause. It was modeled on the vast, nearly unlimited pardon power of the King of England.