For questions regarding heads of state with the title "President." Should be used with a jurisdiction tag to indicate which country the question is about.
Questions tagged [president]
119 questions
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Can someone explain the Trump immunity ruling?
The US Supreme Court handed down their ruling in the presidential immunity case regarding Donald Trump and the January 6 insurrection. From what I've been able to tell from news reports, they said that the President has immunity for "official acts",…
Barmar
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Can the President of the United States pardon proactively?
President Trump's administration has just formally started the transition process. He is now officially a lame-duck President. It is common for outgoing Presidents to grant pardons in this last phase of their presidency, while they still have the…
Peter - Reinstate Monica
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If the President's power to grant pardons is absolute, could he face any consequences?
Does the Presidential power to pardon include the power to avoid any consequences?
Consider this hypothetical situation:
An extremely rich individual (a US citizen) gets involved in a sordid love affair, and winds up charged and convicted of…
DJohnM
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Can a US President, after impeachment and removal, be re-elected or re-appointed?
This answer in its present form states
If Donald Trump were impeached and blocked from running again (which is one of the things that impeachment can do, disqualify from office)...
Is that true?
Does impeachment by the House of Representatives,…
WBT
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How can the US president give an order to a civilian?
I remember reading that the US president can give an order to a civilian via some special letter. (The example given involved an IT company employee ordered to install a back-door in the company's infrastructure.) However, I cannot find this…
Diomidis Spinellis
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Were people born in the Confederacy eligible to run for president?
Since the Confederacy existed for about four years, presumably some number of babies were born there during that time. Technically, those people were not born in the United States.
When those people reached the age of 35 (which would of course be…
SegNerd
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Do US presidential pardons include the cancellation of financial punishments?
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/20/anthony-levandowski-pardoned-after-stealing-trade-secrets-from-google.html says:
Anthony Levandowski pardoned after stealing trade secrets from Google
In August, Levandowski was sentenced to 18 months in prison for…
Franck Dernoncourt
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Can a former United States president be criminally prosecuted for acts committed when he was president?
Just after voting to acquit Trump, GOP senate leader Mitch McConnel said:
We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being accountable by either one. (source)
However,…
Megaptera novaeangliae
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How are presidential pardons supposed to be used?
When and how are pardons supposed to be used? Why does the Constitution even grant the president the power to pardon? Can it be used to pardon any crime?
On the surface, it seems to make the president above the law. CNN just reported that president…
user27343
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Would a Trump-nominated Supreme Court justice be expected to recuse themselves from a Trump case?
As of Oct 21, 2022, the January 6 Committee has issued a subpoena to former president Trump, setting up the potential for a case against Trump to end up in front of the Supreme Court. I spent awhile trying to find precedent on what would happen were…
TheEnvironmentalist
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Is the US President able to make laws unilaterally?
Trump was inaugurated today and immediately signed many executive orders.
While some of these look like "actions", some looks like a law, for example in Trump returns to White House and unleashes barrage of executive orders:
redefined birthright…
Stefanie Gauss
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Why does the Trump immunity decision further delay the trial?
Why is Trump heralding this as a victory, and why are Democrats and the liberal justices saying this puts the president above the law?
There’s another excellent question on the Trump immunity decision with a lot of answers, but I still have…
Michael Atkins-Prescott
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Can pardons be discriminatory?
Suppose a president decided to pardon every white inmate in Federal prisons, while letting all other inmates remain incarcerated.
(Not necessarily a reference to current events)
This seems blatantly illegal, but what recourse would the remaining…
SegNerd
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What happens if Congress declares war, but POTUS refuses to fight it?
By Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the US Constitution, the power to declare war is with the Congress.
Today (03/20/17), during a committee hearing, Ms. Speier, accused Russia (I assume she meant the Russian Federation) of having committed an act…
grovkin
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Can a U.S. President's doctor refuse to answer medical-related questions asked by a Congressional committee?
Say that in the event that the 25th Amendment was to be invoked due to the suspicion that the U.S. President was no longer physically and/or mentally capable of performing his/her Presidential duties, can the doctor(s) of the U.S. President be…
user39281