Contempt In Court

by Brian Beutler, The Media Consortium: Wed., May 14, 2008
Filed under: Congressional Oversight

On Friday, White House lawyers filed a motion in civil court, arguing
against the House’s own filing last month in its attempt to enforce
subpoenas against Josh Bolten and Harriet Miers. As I reported at the
time, the White House appears to be arguing that the courts ought to
stay out of the fight and let the House use other means of leverage
to get the information it seeks from the executive branch.

the Legislative Branch may vindicate its interests
without enlisting judicial support: Congress has a variety of other
means by which it can exert pressure on the Executive Branch, such as
the withholding of consent for Presidential nominations, reducing
Executive Branch appropriations, and the exercise of other powers
Congress has under the Constitution.

The entire document runs 83 pages. I’ll try to get my hands on a
copy, to see what other dubious arguments the administration is making.