Update: Snowden Pardon

I got to thinking about my belief that Snowden can't be pardoned if he's not been tried and convicted. So I did a little research. It appears I am wrong, and I should have known that, since my question was how the ACLU could NOT know. Answer: They couldn't.

The granting of a pardon to a person who has committed a crime or who has been convicted of a crime is an act of clemency, which forgives the wrongdoer and restores the person's Civil Rights. At the federal level, the president has the power to grant a pardon.

[...]

The first major court case involving the pardon power, Ex parte Garland, 71 U.S. (4 Wall.) 333, 18 L. Ed. 366 (1866), established both the scope of the pardon power and the legal effect on a person who was pardoned. President Andrew Johnson pardoned Arkansas attorney and Confederate sympathizer Alexander Hamilton Garland, who had not been tried, for any offenses he might have committed during the Civil War.

[...]

[The Supreme Court] held that the scope of the pardon power "is unlimited, with the exception stated [impeachment]. It extends to every offence known to the law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken, or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgment."

  Legal Dictionary

But you already knew this.  Why did you not correct me?

There you have it. Now go sign the petition, even though it won't happen. It'll be like voting for the candidate you really want to win the presidency.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  Also...

Perhaps they should have put "whistleblower" in that list.