phil 168 slot Five Opinion Writers on What Biden Should Do in His Final Days as President

President Biden has about six weeks left in office, and with Republicans set to control both houses of Congress and the presidency next year, his final acts may be more important than ever.

So we asked five Opinion writers: What should Mr. Biden’s priority be over these next few weeks?

Below is a transcript of what they said.

Five Opinion Writers on What Biden Should Do in His Final Days as PresidentProtecting land and appointing judges could go a long way toward bolstering Biden’s legacy.

We recommend listening to it in its original form for the full effect. You can do so using the player above or on the NYT Audio app, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.

Michelle Goldberg: Pardon and Commute

My name is Michelle Goldberg and I’m an Opinion columnist at The New York Times.

Lame-duck presidents are limited in what they’re able to do, but one power they do have is the power of the pardon, as well as the power to commute criminal sentences. And typically they use this to pardon individuals, but you can also use it to pardon whole classes of people, and that’s something that I hope that Joe Biden will consider.

Biden should pardon everyone who could be prosecuted under the Comstock Act by the Trump administration. The Comstock Act is an 1873 anti-vice law that, among other things, banned the mailing of contraceptives and tools used to perform abortion. And for decades now, the Comstock Act was considered a dead letter. But it was never fully repealed.

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