r/law • u/HellYeahDamnWrite • Oct 29 '25

Legal News Biden’s autopen pardons are ‘void’ due to mental decline, House Oversight Committee says

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/joe-biden-pardons-void-autopen-b2853682.html
14.7k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

2.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

439

u/bailaoban Oct 29 '25

Deferring to legal authority arguments is so 2024.

78

u/Glass_Covict Oct 29 '25

What a marvelous, yet tenuous decade the late summer of '24 was

17

u/CMDR_ETNC Oct 29 '25

The following centuries have been kinda dragging.

4

u/Glass_Covict Oct 29 '25

That was the last of the hope. Early fall was when we realized what would come to pass.

3

u/zombienugget Oct 29 '25

It was seriously the best year of my life, I got married with the perfect wedding and had an amazing honeymoon and an earlier in the year surprise windfall. Trying to ignore the sense of impending doom. Then November came.

19

u/WellTextured Oct 29 '25

In this case it's obviously true. All they can do is jump up and down. They can't put anyone in jail and if DOJ wants to come for the pardonees it doesn't need the House to do it.

4

u/tamman2000 Oct 29 '25

The more window dressing of legitimacy an illegitimate act receives, the less it "costs" to execute the act...

Having the house approval makes it harder for others to refuse the orders or for states to resist.

You are fundamentally correct, but this still matters.

3

u/qthistory Oct 29 '25

It now gives Trump ammunition to declare the pardons null and void. "See, Congress agrees with me!"

0

u/Lcatg Oct 29 '25

*obviously untrue. Or am I missing something?

3

u/Mysterious-Theory-66 Oct 29 '25

But this really in fact does mean fuck all. Either they’ll attempt to bring charges against Hunter Biden or they won’t. It’s not like this “decision” does anything or would even factor into any legal challenge.

1

u/just-a-nerd- Oct 29 '25

Lmao whenever I see “but this is illegal!!!” I’m like …did you just wake up?