Dem
47
GOP
53
On the way out the door, Joe Biden pardoned Anthony Fauci to prevent Donald Trump from indicting him on some trumped up charge. The pardon may have been signed by an autopen, which is a device that was programmed to exactly duplicate Biden's signature. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) wants to test the theory that Biden was incapacitated and the pardon was granted by aides without Biden even knowing about it. Presidents have to sign a vast number of legal documents and if autopens aren't allowed, a court decision to invalidate autopens could definitely hinder future presidents, possibly starting with Donald Trump.
Consequently, Paul has urged the DoJ to indict Fauci for allegedly lying to Congress. Paul said that Fauci testified before Congress that the NIH never funded the virus research in Wuhan, China. Paul believes that the NIH did fund this research. If the Supreme Court rules that documents signed by an autopen don't count, then many documents autosigned by many previous presidents could be declared invalid. Determining which were autosigned would be a nightmare.
Biden has said that he personally approved every document signed by an autopen. A court case would probably turn on two things. First, does an autopen count or must the president personally sign every document? Second, was Biden competent to sign documents? The latter is very tricky since the Constitution does not address the question of whether an incompetent president can sign bills and other documents. If the Supreme Court were to rule that any document signed by a mentally impaired president doesn't count, then a future Democrat AG could challenge every bill Trump signed and possibly get some future Supreme Court to nullify every XO and law Trump signed. This could get very chaotic. (V)