Authenticity is Everything
autopens in law
Was listening to a really interesting discussion about autopens in legal matters, - in this case the many autopens Biden used at the end of his presidency and did this make the stuff he signed legal or not bearing how unwell he was.? This is not a political discussion, on Biden, its a discussion on autopens
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by JK on
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The laws surrounding the legitimacy of the autopen probably vary. A business environment might be very different than a government one, for example.
The first (known) use of an autopen by a US president to sign official documents like legislation, executive orders, or pardons/commutations was by Obama in 2011. It was an extension of the Patriot Act signed in Washington, D.C. under his direction while he was traveling overseas.
I believe there was one other time after that when the Obama White House also used the autopen to sign legislation.
As far as I know, Trump 45 did not use it for that purpose. Biden reportedly did use the autopen extensively to sign pardons and commutations in his last couple months in office.
The potential controversy is that he supposedly did not specifically approve its use on many of the commutations and pardons, but rather gave general approval to conditions or circumstances where it could be used, and then underlings made the actual decisions about who to pardon or commute.
It's potentially a real mess for sure, but I can't really see any pardons or commutations being invalidated. They'd have to prove certain things that would be very hard to prove. I suspect that it will be another controversy that turns into a footnote in history.
At most it might lead to revised protocols on autopen use in the White House.
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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on
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Nowhere in the Constitution or anywhere else does it stipulate a pardon even requires a signature as far as I know. I believe this is a non-issue.
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I believe that is correct that the Constitution does not stipulate that a pardon has to be handsigned or even signed at all, but the president must grant (approve) the pardon.
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It is not written, but legal and historical precedence suggests strongly it is to be signed. It of course must be approved by the President, and it must be accepted by the recipient. Signed by what? That is another question. An unsigned pardon has no precedence. There is a lot of talk about the intent and method of delivery of a Presidential pardon.
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In theory, use of an autopen would allow legal documents to be signed without the knowledge or approval of the signee. A hand signature suggests strongly that the signee was aware of and approved the terms of the document. The issue is the awareness, not the implement.
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Is an Autopen and "authorized agent?" It would appear an Autopen would have a stronger bearing here. The agent would have none is seems. It seems to come down to intent?
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Permalink Reply by Kai Jones on
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It is ridiculous that auto-pen could and would be used for matters of such high importance for the exact reason you stated.
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Permalink Reply by michelle on
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but it is interesting debate imo. By pure fluke it was about Biden but the argument was if you were not of sound mind, how could you pardon someone using an autopen rather than signing it in person? It raised all sorts of interesting questions
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