> the rest is a bit much

The Cabinet or the lame-duck pardons?

Cabinet members are close to the President and in commanding positions of authority; if they’re scared of a law they should work to change it.

Lame ducks, on the other hand, aren’t subject to the single veneer of a check on Presidential pardons: popular outrage. Limiting it in that span, when a President is unaccountable, and where we have ample history of silliness, seems warranted.

Note that I’m not proposing restricting commutations in any of those cases. (I suppose we should add a clause prohibiting the President from preëmptive commutations, too.)

> amending the constitution is virtually impossible

Not true. We’re probably closer to the end of our Constitutional stasis than at any time in our lives.

Hell, you might be able to ram something like this through today if you added a clause that nullifies past pardons per those standards.