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Analysis: Republicans vow to take Holder to court
Reuters
David Ingram and Drew Singer
6/28/2012
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON
"(Reuters) - Perhaps as significant as the contempt citation Congress issued to Attorney General Eric Holder is the likelihood Republicans will also go to court to enforce a congressional demand for documents - a tactic pursued only twice before in U.S. history.
The Republican-led House of Representatives voted on Thursday to find Holder, the country's top law enforcement officer, in contempt of Congress for withholding documents in a botched gun-running sting operation on the U.S.-Mexico border.
In a second vote, the House gave itself the authority to go to court to get the documents.
That will put a spotlight not only on Holder but also on his boss, President Barack Obama, who has insisted he can withhold the documents under executive privilege.
"The contempt citation will go away," said Todd Peterson, a law professor at George Washington University.
"Congress will probably file a lawsuit, in part hoping to find some judicial support but more because it's just another way to publicize the president's refusal to comply with their demands for documents," Peterson said.
Failure to obey a potential court order on the documents would expose Holder to a more serious contempt of court charge, though few expect it to come to that.
Critics complain that high-level legal jousting has become a sport in Washington, where partisan warriors look for any way to attack their foes.
Speaking to reporters in New Orleans, Holder said "an unnecessary court conflict" would ensue because of the House votes. He said it would not distract him or his staff "from the important tasks that are our responsibility."
On both previous occasions when Congress went to court, the targets were Republican and the cases had some success.
In 1974 a federal appeals court granted a Senate panel's demand for one of President Richard Nixon's tape recordings, although the case was later dismissed on other grounds.
A PRECEDENT
In 2008 Democrats, investigating whether the firings of nine U.S. attorneys were politically motivated, won an order that forced Bush administration aides, including former White House counsel Harriet Miers, to hand over documents and testify.
The aides had refused. The House voted to hold them in contempt and went to federal court in Washington where Judge John Bates dismissed the aides' claim that they were "absolutely immune" from having to testify.
It was the first time in U.S. history that a court successfully ordered the White House to turn over information to Congress.
Bates declined to referee the fine points of what documents the White House needed to turn over. Instead he encouraged a negotiated settlement, and the sides reached a compromise one year after Democrats sued.
Now, Republicans are tearing a page from the same playbook to use against Holder, whose cabinet role puts him in charge of the Justice Department in Obama's Democratic administration.
The court action could entangle the Justice Department in an uncomfortable case and force the Obama administration to give new details of the unreleased documents.
The case pitting House Republicans against Holder would largely mirror the 2008 case, said Washington lawyer Stanley Brand, a former general counsel to the House.
"They'll take the lawsuit that was filed in the previous case, they'll change it to reflect the parties and the facts in this case, and they'll file it," Brand said. "They're following what I'd call the Miers precedent."
..................................
View the complete article at:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...85R06C20120628
Reuters
David Ingram and Drew Singer
6/28/2012
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON
"(Reuters) - Perhaps as significant as the contempt citation Congress issued to Attorney General Eric Holder is the likelihood Republicans will also go to court to enforce a congressional demand for documents - a tactic pursued only twice before in U.S. history.
The Republican-led House of Representatives voted on Thursday to find Holder, the country's top law enforcement officer, in contempt of Congress for withholding documents in a botched gun-running sting operation on the U.S.-Mexico border.
In a second vote, the House gave itself the authority to go to court to get the documents.
That will put a spotlight not only on Holder but also on his boss, President Barack Obama, who has insisted he can withhold the documents under executive privilege.
"The contempt citation will go away," said Todd Peterson, a law professor at George Washington University.
"Congress will probably file a lawsuit, in part hoping to find some judicial support but more because it's just another way to publicize the president's refusal to comply with their demands for documents," Peterson said.
Failure to obey a potential court order on the documents would expose Holder to a more serious contempt of court charge, though few expect it to come to that.
Critics complain that high-level legal jousting has become a sport in Washington, where partisan warriors look for any way to attack their foes.
Speaking to reporters in New Orleans, Holder said "an unnecessary court conflict" would ensue because of the House votes. He said it would not distract him or his staff "from the important tasks that are our responsibility."
On both previous occasions when Congress went to court, the targets were Republican and the cases had some success.
In 1974 a federal appeals court granted a Senate panel's demand for one of President Richard Nixon's tape recordings, although the case was later dismissed on other grounds.
A PRECEDENT
In 2008 Democrats, investigating whether the firings of nine U.S. attorneys were politically motivated, won an order that forced Bush administration aides, including former White House counsel Harriet Miers, to hand over documents and testify.
The aides had refused. The House voted to hold them in contempt and went to federal court in Washington where Judge John Bates dismissed the aides' claim that they were "absolutely immune" from having to testify.
It was the first time in U.S. history that a court successfully ordered the White House to turn over information to Congress.
Bates declined to referee the fine points of what documents the White House needed to turn over. Instead he encouraged a negotiated settlement, and the sides reached a compromise one year after Democrats sued.
Now, Republicans are tearing a page from the same playbook to use against Holder, whose cabinet role puts him in charge of the Justice Department in Obama's Democratic administration.
The court action could entangle the Justice Department in an uncomfortable case and force the Obama administration to give new details of the unreleased documents.
The case pitting House Republicans against Holder would largely mirror the 2008 case, said Washington lawyer Stanley Brand, a former general counsel to the House.
"They'll take the lawsuit that was filed in the previous case, they'll change it to reflect the parties and the facts in this case, and they'll file it," Brand said. "They're following what I'd call the Miers precedent."
..................................
View the complete article at:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...85R06C20120628