Sheriff Joe Arpaio Alex Wong/Getty Images

Pardons Are a Loaded Gun

Donald Trump's grant of a presidential pardon to Joe Arpaio, a former sheriff awaiting sentencing for defying a federal judge’s order to stop racially profiling and arbitrarily detaining people who looked Latino, was divisive and unwarranted. So it raises a fundamental question: What if the pardoner doesn't care about justice?

NEW YORK – 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 currently 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.

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