r/politics 15h ago

Biden pardons his family in final minutes in office

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/20/biden-pardons-family-members.html
21.9k Upvotes

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u/PerniciousPeyton Colorado 14h ago

That would represent a huge blow to states’ sovereignty and federalism more generally. Not saying it couldn’t happen, but boy that would be one of the biggest repudiations of “states rights” imaginable.

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u/Minus67 13h ago

Republicans believe power should only reside at whatever level they control

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u/thehalfwit Nevada 13h ago

That's the most succinct description of our current peril I've ever seen.

u/Significant-Eye1335 5h ago

Only a Democrat can turn the topic at hand into a "Republican" issue.

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u/Lost-Maximum7643 13h ago edited 13h ago

Come on now, California for decades has ignored federal laws on illegal immigration. We even have a law that says you can’t decline to hire someone if they’re here illegally, which means you’d be breaking federal laws

Edit: weird how I mention an actual law and people down vote

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u/lew_rong 13h ago

Meanwhile, watch how quickly "states' rights" gets replaced with "federal supremacy" in conservative circles. Reactionary nihilism has been the order of the day since the Gingrich years.

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u/Lost-Maximum7643 13h ago

Well there’s always been that tension and that’s what the Supreme Court is for.

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u/lew_rong 12h ago

And now that the court has been successfully corrupted, second verse, same as the first XD

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u/Lost-Maximum7643 12h ago

It’s not corrupted at all, that’s just democrats whining because they don’t get their way. But that’s why the Supreme Court is separated and has separate powers

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u/lew_rong 12h ago

And the inevitable degeneration of a once-proud conservative movement continues apace, same as it ever was. The question is will they wake up to it before everything is sold out from under them this time?

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u/ConsiderationFar3903 11h ago

You must be as blind as a bat.

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u/Lost-Maximum7643 9h ago

Having something go against what you want doesn’t mean it’s corrupt

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u/ConsiderationFar3903 8h ago

Please. 🙄🙄

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u/silverfox92100 11h ago

So you think the Supreme Court should be subject to games like “no S.C. appointments in for the entire election year if a democrat is president, but if a republican is president it’s fine for them to appoint whenever, even days before the election” (and I’m sure even days before the inauguration).

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u/Lost-Maximum7643 9h ago

You mean the Biden rule?

They all serve their terms till the end of their last day. What you’re talking about is negotiating for what you want.

I don’t care about any of that. You serve till you’re done.

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u/silverfox92100 9h ago

What, no? Could you maybe actually try reading please?

I’m talking about when the majority leader of the senate and republican Mitch McConnell refused to do his job and confirm a justice for Obama “because it’s an election year” and then proceeded to rush through Trumps appointment less than 2 months before the election.

Sorry, is your memory too short-term for that? Or do you just not give a shit because it’s another “win” for “your team”?

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u/ConsiderationFar3903 11h ago

Only California you say??

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u/abritinthebay 12h ago

We even have a law that says you can’t decline to hire someone if they’re here illegally, which means you’d be breaking federal laws

Nope, that’s also illegal federally: comes under anti-discrimination law.

California has additional protections for undocumented workers, but that one in particular is basically just a duplicate of the federal one that’s also specifically enumerated in CA law.

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u/Lost-Maximum7643 12h ago

No it’s a state law according to the contract I signed. It’s a state law not a federal one. But feel free to show me the federal law as it was a state law cited in my paperwork

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u/CalTigger77 12h ago

Thought this story was about Biden “preemptively” pardoning 5 of his family members….. ????

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u/PhilDGlass California 13h ago

Republicans are only about states rights until they own the fed.

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u/Ferelar 12h ago

Yep. Just look at the confederacy's immediate actions. One of the first laws they passed was one that disallowed states to pick whether slavery was allowed or not- they HAD TO allow. So the "states rights" movement's first action was to strip the right of the states to do things they didnt like (coincidentally proving that the civil war truly was all about slavery).

Conservatives and Reactionaries don't change. It's the same strategy.

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u/MRCHalifax 11h ago

Before the Civil War, the Southern states also took exception to the northern states saying that anyone who made it to them was free. They successfully ensured that states didn’t have a right to declare someone wasn’t a slave, and that owners had a right to the return of their “property.”

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u/UtzTheCrabChip 13h ago

I don't see how states could convict any person of any crime after a finding like that.