President Joe Biden is pardoning thousands of people who were convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia, the White House said Friday, in his latest round of executive clemencies meant to rectify racial disparities in the justice system.

Biden is also granting clemency to 11 people serving what the White House called “disproportionately long” sentences for nonviolent drug offenses.

[Not at all unexpected; as Zeke Miller notes, Biden teed this up a year ago before the midterms. But why now, rather than next year before the election? That’s when this would have given Biden an electoral lift. I suspect the White House is desperate to get progressives back behind Biden and reverse the narratives about his plunging political support. — Ed]