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The issue is authority, not the physical act of signing or an ink signature. As long as the President has authorized the use of the autopen, documents signed with an autopen are legally valid,
said Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor
Under the Constitution, pardons do not even need to be in writing,
Perlstein told NewsweekThis is consistent with the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel opinion on this issue. Trump or others who are challenging the pardons will have to establish that Biden did not authorize the autopen signatures or the pardons themselves,
he saidThe President has the right to grant trusted members of his Cabinet the right to formally sign his name, meaning even if Biden's team used an auto signature, pardons would still be valid,
he saidOur findings suggest widespread use of an autopen to sign clemency warrants throughout the Biden Presidency,
the Oversight Project said in a memo released March 17.
The constitutional text is thus silent as to any particular form the President’s clemency act must take to be effective,
the circuit court said in its opinionWe may use it, as an example, to send some young person a letter because it’s nice,
Trump saidSorry J6ers. All of your 1000+ pardons were done with autopen."
The post includes images of the Federal Register's publicly available version of the pardons and saysThe president possesses the power to pardon, but there is no specification (unlike for signing of bills) that this pardon be in writing,
said Bernadette Meyler, a Stanford University scholar of British and American constitutional law
At the beginning of each administration, the White House sends a sample of the President’s signature to the Office of the Federal Register, which uses it to create the graphic image for all Presidential Documents published in the Federal Register,
the National Archives wrote to SnopesEven under Trump’s conception of unlimited presidential power, a future president could undo anything he did – and I assume he would not be happy with that,
said Michael Gerhardt, a University of North Carolina law professorPardons are final and irrevocable,
Kalt saidPresidents historically have not personally signed grants of pardons for every individual they granted clemency to,
notably when granted in large batches such as mass amnesties following wars ... said Dan Kobil, a Capital Law School professorThe DOJ opinion does give Biden cover here,
Michigan State University law professor Brian Kalt saidThe law undoubtedly is, that when a pardon is complete, there is no power to revoke it, any more than there is power to revoke any other completed act.”
In an 1869 ruling, a federal court wroteEverything was signed by autopen – almost everything,
Trump said on March 13.If you do letters where people write in and they'd love to have a response and we write responses—I'll sign them whenever I can, but when I can't I will use an autopen."
Speaking to reporters at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. on Monday, he said
But to use them for what they've used them for is terrible."
Commenting on the Biden administration's alleged use of autopens, Trump said on MondayThe President need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill he approves and decides to sign in order for the bill to become law,
wrote the DOJ
To sign pardons and all of the things that [Biden] signed with an autopen is disgraceful,
Trump said, appearing to briefly acknowledge that Biden did in fact sign them