Book Club

Sai Prakash on The Presidential Pardon: The Short Clause with a Long, Troubled History

April 30, 2026

Sai Prakash joins to discuss his new book, The Presidential Pardon: The Short Clause with a Long, Troubled History. The Constitution’s Pardon Clause grants the president a power unmatched in scope and consequence. In The Presidential Pardon, Prakash explores how this brief clause has grown into the most expansive and controversial tool of the modern presidency. Thomas Donnelly, lead scholar at the National Constitution Center, moderates.

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Participants

Saikrishna (Sai) Prakash is the James Monroe Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia Law School and senior fellow at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia. He has authored three books and over 80 law review articles. He has written on constitutional law for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, testified before Congress at the request of Democrats and Republicans, and appeared on CNN, Fox, and PBS Newshour.

Thomas Donnelly is lead scholar at the National Constitution Center. Prior to joining the Center in 2016, he served as counsel at the Constitutional Accountability Center, as a Climenko Fellow and lecturer on law at Harvard Law School, and as a law clerk for Judge Thomas Ambro on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

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