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Harriet Miers' Contempt of Congress: Are Conservatives About to Neuter Congress, While Claiming Full Legal Justification for thi

by KEARNEY | July 13, 2007 at 07:55 pm | 292 views | add comment | 0 recommendations

After reading this article, I am left wondering whether Congress will step up to the plate and do what it needs to do to resolve this impasse.

When all is said and done the only way Congress can protect its prerogatives is to undertake its own contempt proceedings. The parliamentary precedents of the House provide such procedures, by which Congress can effectively protect itself. There is no shortage of past instances where the Congress has held such trials. Readers may want to consult, for example, Hinds' Precedents and Canon's Precedents. Unfortunately, however, this machinery has become a bit rusty, for these procedures have not been used since 1934.