No. of Recommendations: 4
To use a trivial example, we know Congress can't make it a crime for the President to grant a pardon - because the Pardon power is given by the Constitution to the Executive, and it is generally understood to be unlimited. Congress lacks the power to pass laws restricting or limiting the Pardon power of the President, and that includes criminal laws as well.
Let’s say a president accepts a bribe to give someone a pardon. Or something even more sinister. The president says if you arrange to murder person X, I’ll give you a pardon.
The crime isn’t the president giving a pardon. That’s not the illegality. The crime is taking a bribe or conspiracy to commit murder.
It appears you are saying that the court must waive the criminal component, as long as it’s part of an official act.
