Constitutional Basis for the Decision
- Ford asked himself this main question: Does a pardon erase a criminal act or does it only erase criminal punishment?
- It was the deciding factor of whether he would use the pardon or not
- He went to Benton Becker, a brilliant staff lawyer, for the answer
Controversial Decision
What would you have done and what seemed like the better road for Ford to take?
1915 Supreme Court case: United States v. Burdick
- ruled that the president does, in fact, have the power to issue a pardon prior to a criminal indictment, and moreover it carries an admission of guilt
- Ford was then convinced that a pardon was the right thing to do because Nixon wouldn't get punished, but he would still be held accountable
Against:
- Ford's friend and press secretary resigned
- Ford's staff was very angry
- Ford's approval rating dropped from 71 to 49
- He lost the next election (1976)
- Protestors appeared frequently outside of the White House
- Ford was bashed by the media and many writers of books
- There was never justice or penalties from Nixon's actions
For:
- Allowed the country to move on from Nixon's scandal
- The scandal was withholding the president from directing public policy onto any other subject
- Allowed the president to deal with economic issues and foreign policy instead of spending time with lawyers for the case
- Prevented a president from going to jail
- Helped his friend/ colleague from being convicted
What do you think? Should the president be allowed to erase criminal punishment? A criminal act? Should the pardon even exist at all?
Historical & Background Information
- Ford spent most of his eight months as vice president on the road rallying the Republican faithful to Richard Nixon's cause.
- On August 8th 1974, Richard Nixon addressed the nation for the final time that he would be resigning the presidency.
- At the time, President Ford had been regularly described as a man who was well regarded by everyone, had a sense of purpose, and as devoted to serving his constituents.
- Watergate was not the only event at the time that had traumatized the country, but we were also going through one of the worst economic patches in history.
- Ford hoped that the focus would mainly be on the economy and that the attention would be drawn away from the Nixon scandal.
- President Ford began to realize that he could not juggle so many issues at once, a major one being the decision to pardon Nixon, so he came to the conclusion that he had to bring closure to the decision as soon as possible.
- One of Fords most legitimate points in pardoning Nixon was to move on from the past so the country could move onto more pressing issues.
- Many people question the relationship between Richard Nixon and President Ford ,but it was commonly thought that Ford was just another political acquaintance.
Formal/Informal Powers Used
The Controversial Pardoning
- The pardon is considered a formal power
- It must be requested by a convict
- It cannot be refused
- Its usage decreased since WWII
Created By: Brian Barker, Alyse DeLuca, and Ryan Robert
Short-Term Effects
How do you think your opinion would have changed from the initial action to numerous years later?
Long-Term Effects
- Ford later received apologies from writers who wrote years ago that Ford was wrong, shouldn't have done that and who undermined him
- Writers now think that what he did was courageous and said sorry
- Ford won the "Profiles in Courage Award" from the J.F.K Library Foundation in 2001
- Some people think he changed the course of history and presidents like Reagan and Carter would not have been presidents
- Common opinions are that his courage made us able to move on as a country, heal and leave it behind
- The country's reactions were worse than he expected
- He spent the rest of his entire presidency trying to rebuild his severely damaged image
- Ford's friend and press secretary resigned
- Ford's staff was very angry
- Ford's approval rating dropped from 71 to 49
- He lost the next election (1976)
- Protestors appeared frequently outside of the white house
- Ford was bashed by the media and many writers of books