Whereas while article II, section 2 of the Constitution vests in the President the power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, there is an overriding fundamental common law rule, nemo iudex in causa sua, which holds that no one may be a judge in his own case; Whereas the Constitution and laws of the United States, and any actions pursuant thereto, must adhere to fundamental and common sense principles of law; Whereas one of the Framers of the Constitution, James Madison, declared in the 10th essay of the Federalist Papers that [n]o man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity ; Whereas another Framer of the Constitution, Alexander Hamilton, wrote in the 74th essay of the Federalist Papers that the pardon power exists as a matter of humanity and good policy , and that the President must reflect on the fate of a fellow-creature depended on his sole fiat , which clearly suggests that the President is the grantor of pardons to another, and exercises this power to the benefit of another and not to the benefit of himself; Whereas understanding the fundamental rules of law, no President in the history of the United States has ever attempted to pardon himself; Whereas the executive branch, through the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel, itself opined in an August 5, 1974, legal opinion that the Executive, the President, cannot pardon himself; Whereas when faced with the prospect of criminal prosecution, President Richard Nixon appeared to acknowledge the limitations of the President’s pardon power as expressed in the August 5, 1974, Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel memorandum when he resigned without attempting to act contrary to the memorandum