The Alternate Times

By Jorge Lopez Morales

September 18, 2029

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court invalidated more than 1,500 pardons today given by former U.S. President Donald Trump to insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol at his behest on Jan. 6, 2021.

“This country does not recognize the power of a President to pardon traitors and those who wage war against its government in his name. Such self-serving and corrupt pardon powers would be — and have been — ruinous to the fabric of democracy,” wrote Justice Sherrilyn Ifill.

Trump, at the beginning of the Fascist Period in 2025, pardoned those who physically destroyed the Capitol and attacked police officers in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Although U.S. authorities never prosecuted Trump for insurrection, many of his supporters received criminal sentences. One of his first acts upon returning to the presidency was to pardon the loyalists and foster ongoing obedience to his regime.

However, following secession, a group of injured Jan. 6 victims sued to reverse Trump’s pardons. They relied on a theory advanced by Professor Neil H. Buchanan, following the initial secession talks in November 2028, that a newly constituted United States could not recognize any pardons Trump had issued.

The Supreme Court’s majority agreed with that argument.

“In the eyes of the United States Government, the subjects of the purported pardons remain convicted. Whether they remain in this country or return to it, they are subject to the same restraints on their liberty as any other convicted felon,” wrote Ifill.

Justices Dale Ho and Cecilia Wang dissented, believing the nullification of a presidential pardon needed to occur through a constitutional amendment.