In 'Stunning' 2-1 Decision, Appeals Court Says Congress Can't Enforce Subpoena Against Ex-WH Counsel [View all]

[Calista241]

Source: Law & Crime

A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. on Monday ruled that the U.S. House of Representatives does not have any legal authority to enforce a subpoena against former White House counsel Don McGahn. In a 2-1 decision penned by Judge Thomas B. Griffith, a George W. Bush appointee, the court reasoned that the Constitution does not grant a congressional committee the power to enforce its own subpoenas, dismissing the case in favor of McGahn.

“Congress has no implied constitutional power to seek civil enforcement of its subpoenas. The Committee thus cannot identify an underlying judicial remedy that could authorize it to invoke the Declaratory Judgment Act,” Griffith wrote. “Because the Committee lacks a cause of action to enforce its subpoena, this lawsuit must be dismissed.”

Judge Griffith stated, however, that while the committee does not currently have such enforcement power, that could be rectified if Congress passed a law granting such authority.

“We note that this decision does not preclude Congress (or one of its chambers) from ever enforcing a subpoena in federal court; it simply precludes it from doing so without first enacting a statute authorizing such a suit,” he wrote. “If Congress (rather than a single committee in a single chamber thereof) determines that its current mechanisms leave it unable to adequately enforce its subpoenas, it remains free to enact a statute that makes the House’s requests for information judicially enforceable. Indeed, Congress has passed similar statutes before, authorizing criminal enforcement in 1857 and civil enforcement for the Senate in 1978.”


Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/in-stunning-2-1-decision-appeals-court-says-congress-cant-enforce-subpoena-against-ex-wh-counsel-don-mcgahn/