Lord bless our Constitutional Bill of Rights. Today #4 The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Yet Today we witness Congressional subpoena-s How is Congress empowered to subpoena anyone. PLEASE Type slowly for me because I don't get it. Moi
The Supreme Court has affirmed the implied power since the 18th century. Congress can compel the production of documents and/or testimony. Our Federal code is where enforcement is delineated.
Logical question. The supreme court ruled that in order for congress to carry out its constitutional duties to legislate there may be instances where certain parties have information that would be critical to them doing their legislating. So SCOTUS said congress can, through a court, issue subpoenas to try to get that information. It is actually logical, except, like all competent politicians, congress scours for loopholes to allow them to issue subpoenas for people they just want to string up. They give the court a song and dance and away they go.
You're required to go. Doesn't mean you're required to testify to anything specific. Just tell them you're asserting your 5th and 1st Amendment Rights for everything and not answering any questions so they're just wasting their time.
One day the GOP will have the House, and this power, and they will likely turn into pussycats who want to get along with democrats in the bipartisan purpose of all of them getting rich together: "Congress has three formal methods through which it can seek to enforce compliance with a congressional subpoena. First, the inherent contempt power permits Congress to rely on its own constitutional authority to detain and imprison a subpoena recipient who fails to comply with congressional demands. ``Under the inherent contempt power the individual is brought before the House or Senate by the Sergeant-at-Arms, tried at the bar of the body, and can be imprisoned or detained in the Capitol or perhaps elsewhere.'' Second, the criminal contempt statute permits Congress to certify a contempt citation to the appropriate U.S. attorney for criminal prosecution. It is a misdemeanor criminal offense, punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and imprisonment of up to one year for a witness under congressional subpoena to fail to appear or to withhold testimony or documents. The procedural mechanism for initiating the criminal contempt provision provides that the President of the Senate or Speaker of the House must certify the fact of contempt ``to the appropriate United States attorney, whose duty it shall be to bring the matter before the grand jury for its action.'' The Department of Justice, however, has asserted that it retains the prosecutorial discretion not to act on a contempt referral despite the mandatory language of the contempt statute." https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/115th-congress/house-report/360/1 So, implied, not expressed power, and I see no good reason why they should not meet the standard of the 4th amendment. "no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." The response is likely that this is not a criminal investigation, though in the case of J6, it most certainly is a criminal investigation, where they are attempting to discover enough criminal evidence to force Garland to indict. Given that, I think that all of their actions should meet standard for a criminal investigation.
That is probably the outcome, but maybe it is as it should be in a constitutional republic -- or not.
@Zorro The above upload reads like a bunch of lawyerfication compromising our 4th Amendment liberties. I mean why not let the executive branch subpoena too? Maybe law enforcement also. The Judicial branch of gov't should be the only part of gov't with subpoena powers. Moi Don't further ize
