Courts order criminals to repay the people they hurt. Victims count on that money to rebuild after fraud, theft, and violence. Then a pardon arrives and the debt vanishes overnight, with no explanation to the people still owed. The pardon power was written as an instrument of mercy. It was never meant to cancel what a court said is owed to a victim. Congress has before it the Pardon Transparency and Accountability Act and a proposed constitutional amendment on pardons, and voters deserve to know where candidates stand on both. Victims should not learn from a news alert that their judgment is gone. Mercy for the person who committed the crime must not mean a bill for the person who suffered it. Whoever holds the office, the rule should be the same: the people harmed come first. Bar pardons from erasing court-ordered restitution owed to crime victims.
