Can Congress arrest the president's aides?
Rutgers law professor Frank Askin writes that if the Bush Administration won’t prosecute officials who refuse to testify before Congress on the U.S. attorneys kerfuffle, then Congress itself should take the officials into custody:nsv porn xxx
Instead of referring a contempt citation to the U.S. attorney, a house of Congress can order the sergeant-at-arms to take recalcitrant witnesses into custody and have them held until they agree to cooperate — i.e., an order of civil contempt. Technically, the witness could be imprisoned somewhere in the bowels of the Capitol, but historically the sergeant-at-arms has turned defendants over to the custody of the warden of the D.C. jail.
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So, far from being defenseless against the president’s refusal to prosecute or the threat of presidential pardon, Congress could take into its own custody defiant administration officials who refuse to cooperate with legitimate inquiries into executive malfeasance. Those targets would have the right to seek writs of habeas corpus from the federal courts, but as long as Congress could show a legitimate need for the information it was seeking pursuant to its legislative oversight functions, it would be standing on solid legal ground.
• Congress isn’t performing a legitimate oversight function. U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president. He can dismiss them at will. There is nothing for Congress to oversee. All the Democrats are doing here is schmoozing their base and separating it from its money, hardly a permissible basis for depriving people of their liberty.nsv porn xxx
• Joshua Bolten and Harriet Miers won’t testify before Congress because the president, citing executive privilege, has told them not to testify before Congress. What makes Professor Askin think that Mr. Bush would allow the arrest of officials who are following his lawful orders? No president could tolerate that. It would undermine his (soon, her) authoratha. Yes, both houses of Congress have a sergeant-at-arms. But the president has the Secret Service, renown for its ability to provide protective custody. As even one liberal blogger observes:nsv porn xxx
The most obvious benefit of inherent contempt is that it’s conducted entirely “in-house,” that is, entirely on the authority of the legislative branch. The most obvious drawback? Spending time on a trial. Well, that and the scene of having the Sergeant at Arms and the Capitol Police physically barred from entering the White House to arrest those who’ve defied subpoenas.
In which case, the sergeant-at-arms — and by extension, Congress — walks away looking silly and impotent. The Democrats have already been made daft by Republicans blocking their every move. It’s not nice of Professor Askin to egg them over the edge.nsv porn xxx