Time for an amendment to limit pardons?

Nobody abused their presidential pardon powers quite like the Bushes. George H.W. Bush pardoned traitors involved in the Iran-Contra scandal, and his son pardoned political cronies.

Donald Trump continued this Republican tradition yesterday - Fascism Friday - by pardoning Joe Arpaio after the disgraced Arizona sheriff was busted for illegal racial profiling.

The Constitution's provision that grants the President unlimited pardon privileges was modeled after the British monarch's power to do the same. But ongoing abuses of this power means it should be reined in.

In 1974, in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Democratic Sen. Walter Mondale introduced a constitutional amendment that said pardons could be overturned within 180 days if two-thirds of each house of Congress agrees. In 2001, after Bill Clinton issued a pardon that Republicans didn't like, Republicans revived the idea. But today...crickets.

On most things, Congress has too much power. I'd rather see an amendment that puts the power to overturn pardons in the hands of the judicial branch. But sometimes Presidents abuse their privileges too.