Merry Christmas and happy holidays to our readers. On this day of giving, the Blog notes, by way of Grits for Breakfast, that the Department of Justice’s Office of the Pardon Attorney, which makes recommendations to the President regarding executive pardons, has been a veritable Scrooge over the years in recommending cases for clemency. Our Blog noted that President Obama issued a whopping nine pardons back on December 6–many for offenses which were allegedly committed when Lyndon Johnson held his office. Grits for Breakfast cites a letter to the LA Times from Samuel T. Morison, a former staff attorney for the Office of 10 years, in which Mr. Morison states that presidents give far too much deference to the Office in recommending pardons, and that the Office’s primary concern is protecting prosecutorial perrogatives.
