New York Times: “The nation may desire healing. But there is also the matter of justice, and there is no guarantee that what feels right now will look right through the longer lens of history. Ford was widely assailed for pardoning Nixon. But one of his most outspoken critics at the time, Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, later honored Ford with a Profile in Courage award, explaining that he’d been moved to rethink his views after witnessing the sprawling and protracted investigation into President Clinton by the independent counsel Ken Starr. It may be time to rethink Ford’s decision once more; it’s hard not to wonder if a Trump presidency would have been possible if Nixon had been criminally prosecuted rather than pardoned.”

“In that sense, the problem that Trump poses for Biden may also present an opportunity, a chance to repair more than just the damage of the last four years. To begin with, this may require recognizing that when a president brazenly flouts the law, electoral defeat might not be enough of a punishment. ‘There’s a mind-set that we need to reset,’ Stephen Vladeck, a constitutional law professor at the University of Texas, told me. ‘Breaking the law is not a political difference.’ It might also require recognizing that to really move on from Trump, ‘healing’ may have to mean something fundamentally different from what it has in the past — and that without accountability, it may in fact be impossible.”