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Suit Escalates Battle Between Branches
Escalating the years-long battle between the branches over the scope of executive power, the House Judiciary Committee filed suit today in federal court to force two White House officials to comply with subpoenas seeking documents and testimony on the firings of nine U.S. attorneys last year.
The lawsuit could prove to be a key test of the scope of executive privilege, and of Congress' ability to make sure its subpoenas and contempt citations carry weight. The legislative and executive branches have fought on a variety of fronts since President Bush took office, with the administration arguing that long-eroded executive powers must be strengthened and members of Congress -- mostly Democrats -- complaining that their ability to conduct oversight has been weakened.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the House General Counsel on behalf of the Judiciary panel, which issued contempt citations last year against White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers. The full House approved the citations last month.
Bolten and Miers have both refused to cooperate with the committee's investigation of the prosecutor firings and other allegations of politicization at the Justice Department. The Bush administration has cited executive privilege in its decision not to make Bolten and Miers available for sworn testimony, though it has offered to let the two speak to the committee as long as their statements are not under oath and not transcribed. House Democrats have refused to take that deal.
"We will not allow the administration to steamroll Congress," Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) said in a statement. "Under our system of checks and balances, Congress provides oversight of the executive branch to make sure that government power is not abused."
But Michael Steel, spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), called the lawsuit a "partisan political stunt" and an example of "pandering to the left-wing fever swamps of loony liberal activists."
The Bush administration, particularly Vice President Cheney, has made no secret of its view that most executive branch deliberations deserve protection from the prying eyes of Congress. Before these contempt citations, the most recent high-profile fight on that front came when the Government Accountability Office (then known as the General Accounting Office) sued Cheney seeking the names of people who had met with the administration's energy task force. The GAO dropped that suit in 2003 after a federal court ruled in Cheney's favor.
By Ben Pershing |
March 10, 2008; 1:05 PM ET
Branch vs. Branch
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Posted by: OhioRepubliscum | March 10, 2008 1:44 PM
Republican Senator John Boehner's comments reminds me of Vice President Spiro Agnew's mindless assaults on the decency of those who happened to intertain an opposing opinion. He and Boehner provide absolutely no constructive service in the spirit of a functioning deocratic republic. Perhaps that is why they are given voice.
Posted by: gordon brown | March 10, 2008 1:49 PM
The Democratic leadership is right to condemn the President's defiance and obstruction of the Article I investigatory powers of Congress, but wrong to bring a civil lawsuit rather than utilizing the constitutional remedy of impeachment. Any lawyer (like myself) can tell you that this kind of civil suit has ZERO chance of achieving a favorable result before the Bush Administration ends in less than 11 months. As the Republicans' impeachment of President Clinton demonstrated, the Democrats could impeach President Bush within the next few months and such impeachment proceedings would do a great deal more to stop further Executive Branch abuses than the pendency of predictably protracted litigation in Federal District Court. Conyers is a lawyer and Pelosi is not stupid. They know that this lawsuit is nothing other than political posturing for the November election. With impeachment "off the table," we can only look forward to further Executive Branch abuses of power until next January -- and probably well beyond that date, since Democrats seem not to want to impose any meaningful Congressional limitations on Executive power.
Posted by: richard young | March 10, 2008 3:47 PM
"The Democratic leadership is right to condemn the President's defiance and obstruction of the Article I investigatory powers of Congress, but wrong to bring a civil lawsuit rather than utilizing the constitutional remedy of impeachment."
I agree completely. No law suit will matter. Congress is a co-equal branch of government and has the power to throw the President out. It doesn't matter if it's for something trivial like lying because he got caught with another women or something serious like going to war or using the Attorney General's office to go after political enemies. No Judges are going to step in between the Prez and Congress if they can help it.
Posted by: thebobbob | March 10, 2008 6:25 PM
Impeach Bush? And put the Dark Lord in the White House?
Posted by: DDS | April 10, 2008 3:06 PM
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If Congress was more interested in pertinate matters rather than poking their noses into Executive Powers, I could not acurately say, "The economy has tanked since the Democrats took control of Congress".