Biden’s Lawfare by Other Means

President Joe Biden gifted a lump of coal to the families of the victims of the 37 convicted killers whom he pardoned this week. And, on his way out the door, he’s using his power over law enforcement to drop coal lumps also on American industry and the economy — by making energy companies vulnerable to concocted legal theories about their supposed concealment of climate change.

Biden’s recent pardons underscore the presidency’s nearly absolute control over federal law enforcement. As the sole officer charged by the Constitution to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,” the president not only sets enforcement priorities and allocates agents, prosecutors, and resources to pursue them, he can also effectively nullify congressional law. With his pardons, for example, President Biden reversed Congress’s decision to make the death penalty available for the worst crimes. With his open border and loose asylum policies, he has countered congressional wishes for an effective immigration policy.

About the Author

John Yoo

John Yoo is the Thomas W. Smith Senior Fellow at the Civitas Institute, University of Texas at Austin; Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley; and a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is a co-author of the just-released two-volume American Constitutional Law (Routledge, 2026).

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President Joe Biden gifted a lump of coal to the families of the victims of the 37 convicted killers whom he pardoned this week. And, on his way out the door, he’s using his power over law enforcement to drop coal lumps also on American industry and the economy — by making energy companies vulnerable to concocted legal theories about their supposed concealment of climate change.

Biden’s recent pardons underscore the presidency’s nearly absolute control over federal law enforcement. As the sole officer charged by the Constitution to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,” the president not only sets enforcement priorities and allocates agents, prosecutors, and resources to pursue them, he can also effectively nullify congressional law. With his pardons, for example, President Biden reversed Congress’s decision to make the death penalty available for the worst crimes. With his open border and loose asylum policies, he has countered congressional wishes for an effective immigration policy.

About the Author

John Yoo

John Yoo is the Thomas W. Smith Senior Fellow at the Civitas Institute, University of Texas at Austin; Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley; and a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is a co-author of the just-released two-volume American Constitutional Law (Routledge, 2026).