Discussion: The Court, the FBI and the House
on May 24, 2006 at 8:37 am
(NOTE: The following brief post is provided for readers of the blog as an invitation to offer comments on the issues that it may suggest. The hope is to stimulate a serious but lively exchange.)
UPDATE 5:00 p.m. The Speaker and Minority Leader of the House on Wednesday demanded that the Justice Department return records seized from Rep. Jefferson’s office. They also demanded that the Department move in court to nullify the search warrant. Their joint statement can be found here.
UPDATE 6:55 P.M. News organizations are reporting that Rep. Jefferson filed a motion with Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan seeking the return of his files. Hogan, according to the reports, issued the warrant for the Capitol Hill search last Thursday.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation spent last Saturday night and much of Sunday going through the files of a member of Congress, in his Capitol Hill office. The member, Louisiana Democrat William J. Jefferson, is under criminal investigation by the FBI for possible bribery offenses. The “Saturday night raid,” as House Speaker Dennis Hastert called it, has stirred a serious constitutional conflict over separation of powers.
On Tuesday, the Republican leader of the House, Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio, told reporters: “I have got to believe, at the end of the day, it is going to end up across the street at the Supreme Court. I don’t see anything short of that.”
If the issue eventually does reach the Court, it is being suggested, the Justices perhaps would make a searching new examination of the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause, which reads in part (Article I, Section 6): “…for any speech or debate in either House, [the Senators and Represenatives] shall not be questioned in any other place.”
Does that embody a broader concept of legislative independence than the specific wording suggests? Does it imply some protection from an FBI raid on a congressional office? What impact does it have on a court’s authority to approve a warrant for searching a congressman’s files?
Speaker Hastert has said: “The actions of the Justice Department in seeking and executing this warrant raise important constitutional issues that go well beyond the specifics of this case.”
The Speaker’s full statement on the incident, issued on Monday, can be found here. It provides a starting point for discussing the potential issues.
