Courses

P.S. Ruckman

Professor of Political Science

Rock Valley College

P.S. Ruckman writes for the nationally recognized blog Pardon Power where he chronicles the latest news regarding the presidential pardons and the pardon power as exercised in each state. Ruckman is a professor of Political Science at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Illinois, as well as an instructor at Northern Illinois University.

Blog Posts

The Legacy of President Obama's Pardon Power

October 3, 2016
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Criminal Justice

Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution grants the President the power to “grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.” The Supreme Court interprets this language to include the power to grant pardons (full and conditional), commutations of sentence, conditional commutations of sentence, amnesties (or group pardons), remissions of fines and forfeitures as well as reprieves (or respites). The most common grants have been individual pardons (which simply restore civil rights) and commutations of sentence (which reduce the severity