I don't think that is quite true. No pardon reversals have ever happened, and you know Dems would have demanded Carter reverse Ford's pardon of Nixon if they had that chance.
Anyway, a pardon is specifically a power granted in the constitution and is irrevocable after it is accepted, and sometimes, if it is an unconditional pardon, it is immediate upon signature even if they do not accept it. This is a power given to the executive in the constitution and courts have ruled it a deed, irrevocable upon the time it is executed (either with an acceptance or with a signature on an unconditional pardon).
Key historical precedents:
- Ex parte Garland (1866): The Supreme Court described a pardon as “a deed, to the validity of which delivery is essential, and delivery is not complete without acceptance… When the pardon is full, it releases the punishment and blots out of existence the guilt… it makes the offender a new man.”
- Burdick v. United States (1915): Reaffirmed that a pardon carries an “imputation of guilt” and that acceptance is required, but once accepted it is irrevocable.
- Multiple Attorneys General (e.g., 1833, 1869, 1890, 1926) have issued formal opinions stating that one president cannot revoke the pardon of a predecessor.
Executive orders are directives to the executive branch about how to administer the law. They can be revoked or modified by later presidents because they are ongoing administrative acts. A pardon, by contrast, is a one-time, completed constitutional act that extinguishes criminal liability for a specific individual. Once it is signed and delivered (or publicly announced and not rejected), the judicial branch treats the underlying conviction or potential prosecution as void. There is no remaining administrative mechanism for a later president to “undo” it.
I believe it would be double jeopardy to try to reincarcerate someone for a crime for which they have been pardoned.