Machines to copy signatures have been used by presidents since Jefferson. In 2005, the government held that presidents may use them to sign official documents.
WASHINGTON—The “autopen” is in vogue. On March 17, President Donald Trump announced in a late-night social media post that he would ignore several pardons issued by his predecessor, President Joe Biden, because they were allegedly signed by autopen.
An autopen is a machine that reproduces handwriting. In the case of elected officials, who are expected to sign thousands of official documents on a regular basis, autopens are often used to reproduce their signatures in lieu of them signing each paper by their own hand.
The use of autopens has raised constitutional questions for some after Trump’s accusations of autopen use by Biden. They say that autopen use casts doubt on whether Biden knew the documents were being signed at all, thus implicating their validity.
“I worked in [the White House] for several presidents,” wrote K.T. MacFarland, a former deputy national security adviser during Trump’s first administration, on social platform X. “If Biden himself granted these pardons, there will be paper trail. If not, the guy running autopen machine usurped presidential authority.”
In a Jan. 20 statement that announced the pardons that were later challenged by his successor, Biden stated: “I am exercising my authority under the Constitution to pardon General Mark A. Milley, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the Members of Congress and staff who served on the Select Committee, and the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the Select Committee.”
The Epoch Times is unable to independently verify whether the pardons were signed by autopen or not.
The Biden Presidential Library at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) denied The Epoch Times’ Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for Biden administration records about autopen use, citing a statute that prevents their release for five years after a president leaves office.
The former president, who has not yet established a post-presidential office, is not reachable.
Courts have opined that presidential pardons need not be written, and may be granted orally.
On whether writing is required as part of the president’s exercise of the clemency power, “The answer is undoubtedly no,” ruled the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in 2024. “The plain language of the Constitution imposes no such limit.”
The Law of Autopens
Aside from the question of Biden’s foreknowledge, the constitutionality of autopen use by a president for official acts has never been determined by a federal court.
Article I, Section 7 of the U.S. Constitution requires that any bill passed by Congress must be signed by the president in order to become law, using the language “If he approve he shall sign it.”
By Arjun Singh
