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Appeals Court Seeks to Weigh In on Battle Over Miers Subpoena

Friday 05 September 2008

by: Marisa Taylor  |  McClatchy Newspapers

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Former White House Counsel Harriet Miers. (Photo: Ron Edmonds / AP)

    Washington - A federal appeals court is mulling whether it has the authority to step into a constitutional battle between Congress and the White House over legislative subpoena power.

    Late Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in response to a Justice Department request, ordered lawyers for the House of Representatives and the White House to brief it by 4 p.m. Sept. 10 on whether it has jurisdiction to delay a lower court's order that former White House counsel Harriet Miers must appear before Congress to testify about the firing of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006.

    In late July, U.S. Distrct Judge John Bates ruled that Miers did not have the right to ignore a subpoena from Congress, but that she could cite executive privilege and refuse to answer specific questions once she was before a congressional committee. Congress has ordered Miers to appear Sept. 11.

    Bates's 93-page ruling was seen as a significant setback for the administration, which had asserted a broad executive privilege claim that would have protected Miers from making an appearance.

  

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Comments

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And the white house starts

 Fri, 09/05/2008 - 22:40 — t.b. (not verified)
And the white house starts wars to bring democracy and a transparent government to other countries - while ours is as transparent as lead.

Would that be the U. S.

 Fri, 09/05/2008 - 23:22 — Francis Scalzi (not verified)
Would that be the U. S. Court of Appeals in Washingfton DC , Appeals Court Chief Judge David Sentelle presiding ? You know, the one who has stymied the Wilsons from gaining justice in the" outing" of Valarie Wilson. It appear that Sentelle has now received his instructions from the White House to meddle in the Miers affair and try to shoe horn his "authority' into the case in order to wave his wand and to dismiss all charges. Santelle is an early example of the campaign launched by the Republican White House to corrupt our legal system by elevating their flunkies to justice status in order to protect the Republican administrations from the law. Control the lawyers and the judges and your control the law.

"A setback for the

 Sat, 09/06/2008 - 01:06 — Anonymous (not verified)
"A setback for the administration", how about the numerous setbacks for the constitution, our system of justice, and out government. I blame the democratic leadership for this situation. They had the power to deal with the Bush administration, but acquiesced time and again--to the consternation of those who voted them into office.

Addendum: Control the

 Sat, 09/06/2008 - 03:57 — Francis Scalzi (not verified)
Addendum: Control the lawyers and the judges and you control the law. That has been the Cheney/Bush White House strategy for the past eight years, protected by their appointees in the system. A recent examples of the effects of that campaign: Puppet A. G. Mukasey's incredible statement in response to a question regarding yet another flagrant violation by the White House that "not all crimes are against the law". When you have control of the minions appointed to enforce the law , there is no effective law and therefore no definition of crime. That, incidently, does not happen to be a devious Karl Rove invention, although we may be sure he approves of it. It was, rather, the operating procedure of Alphonse Capone in Chicago not too terrible long ago. While it has sometimes been practiced since then in more modest ways, the Cheney/Bush administration has employed it on a national scale.

The Court of Appeals hasn't

 Sat, 09/06/2008 - 22:38 — radline9 (not verified)
The Court of Appeals hasn't gotten it yet that the Bush Administration is above the law. We have been going through the courts against Bush for 7 years now, so by the time the law works, we will all be deceased. They don't care about no stinking law.