The power to issue a presidential pardon is a loaded gun

The power to pardon in now in the hands of an unstable narcissist whose use of the executive perogative could cause profound damage, writes Ruti Teitel

Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, who was convicted of contempt of court for defying a federal judge’s order to stop racially profiling and arbitrarily detaining Latinos in the name of catching illegal immigrants, is no stranger to controversy.

But it is US president Donald Trump’s recent pardon of Arpaio that is spurring heated debate, as it raises fundamental questions about the presidential pardon power that has been a part of US policymaking from the country’s birth.