Lock them up? Or? Democrats' wave of contempt raises strange questions

Attorney General William Barr is waiting for the House vote to condemn him in contempt of Congress. The same could be considered for the former White House lawyer, Don McGahn, and perhaps others.

The Judiciary Committee of the House voted in favor of condemning Barr for contempt of Congress for failing to provide Congress with Mueller's complete and unredacted report. The measure must always be brought before the House slaps Barr with a contempt citation.

A member of the House jury will vote to retain Barr, while Trump asserts the executive's privilege over MUELLER's records

When Congress scorns someone, it usually triggers a protracted and unsatisfactory judicial fight. Formerly, members of Congress arrested someone despised and held it themselves.

"Congress contempt" can take three forms. Civil contempt, criminal contempt and inherent constitutive contempt.

Civil contempt means that the House or Senate takes legal action to extract information or testimony that is missing. Criminal contempt involves sending the resolution to the Department of Justice for the purpose of prosecuting the uncooperative individual.

And then, there is the inherent contempt. This is where the Congress does not interfere with the federal judiciary or executive power to help exercise its own authority. Congress applies the contempt resolution under its own power, vested in Article 1 of the Constitution.

"My favorite," said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., Speaking of inherent disregard.

The authority for contempt of Congress goes back to the customs of the English Parliament and the colonial legislatures. The Congress was very early in deploying its own power of contempt.

In 1795, three members of the House thought that two men, one of them named Robert Randall, had attempted to corrupt them. The House decided that the second man was innocent. But the House ruled Randall in contempt. Randall was brought to Congress and reprimanded by President Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey. Randall was remanded for a few days.

In 1800, the Senate found journalist William Duane in defiance of newspaper articles he had written on Senate committees. The Senate arrested Duane and kept him for several weeks.

Naturally, some thought that the contempt power of Congress went too far. The debate sparked a case from the Supreme Court. But the High Court ruled in 1821 that Congress was empowered to exercise its own power of contempt – which may include arrest and detention.

Despite this, the Congress has not arrested anyone for contempt of Congress since 1934.

Legislators investigated the 1930 air mail scandal and determined whether the Hoover administration had improperly contracted with airlines for mail delivery. William MacCracken was Deputy Secretary of Commerce of President Herbert Hoover. MacCracken chaired a meeting that set up the mail contracts. MacCracken did not cooperate with the Senate. The Senate voted for MacCracken's contempt and arrested him.

It's where things get interesting.

The Senate held MacCracken for ten days. Not in a congressional jail, but at the posh Willard hotel in downtown Washington.

It has been suggested that Congress might be compelled to despise the personalities during the Watergate Inquiry in the mid-1970s. The Watergate Committee Chair, Senator Sam Ervin, DS.C, has threatened to imprison any witness who did not follow his investigation. But that never happened to that.

And if the contempt of Congress has passed to the modern model. Congress would vote to despise someone and go to court. But it was about that.

This was the case in 1982, when the House decided to sentence Anne Gorsuch Burford, Administrator of the EPA (Mother of Supreme Court Judge Neil Gorsuch), on the basis that she had not provided the relevant documents. Superfund sites.

The Congress has plunged four times in waters of contempt in recent years. The Democratic House quoted White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and Councilor Harriet Miers in a Congressional outrage in 2008 under the George W. Bush administration. House Republican accused Contorney General Eric Holder of the Obama administration in 2012. GOP House also voted in favor of Lois Lerner, a former employee of the IRS, in defiance of the Congress in 2014.

NADLER RECEIVES NEW HOLDER: CONTEMPTING VOTE IS "MAN" LAUNCHES LOAD AGAINST BARR

Congress tried in vain to persuade the Justice Department to prosecute Holder and Lerner. But the four outrages at Congressional quotes implied a civil contempt. Every lawsuit brought. They have resulted in less than satisfactory results for those who support contempt at Capitol Hill.

The Chair of the Judiciary Committee of the House, Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., Stated that the House resolution on Attorney General William Barr would constitute a civil contempt, giving rise to a trial. But, the inherent contempt remains on the table.

Nadler avoided answering a question about the contempt inherent in the question of why the House would not pursue something more muscular, given the flaccid results of other contempt resolutions.

"I do not want to answer that question because I'm not sure we will not," Nadler replied.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Also hinted that inherent contempt was on the table – and the consequences that ensue – during a speech at a Washington Post forum. , a few days ago.

"We have a local prison in the basement of the Capitol," said Pelosi. "But if we arrested all members of the administration, we would have a situation of overcrowding in prison."

However, the use of this underground cell for detention is only folklore.

At the bottom of the bowels of the American Capitol, a small room is on two levels just before the floor of the rotunda and precisely in the dead center of the building. The arches extend above the ground to form the space. A wrought iron door blocks the entrance from the outside. A black combination padlock secures the fence. It is there that they had the intention of burying George Washington. One of the projects was to build the rotunda so that visitors could look up from Washington's grave.

But that never happened. Washington is buried in Mount Vernon, 19 miles south, along the banks of the Potomac River.

There is no evidence that Congress ever detained anyone in this space. It looks like a prison. But this is not the case.

However, it is Washington, DC. Never let the facts upset a good story.

Many guides, lawmakers and assistants have promulgated the myth that the site was once used as a cell of the Capitol Prison.

The architect of the Capitol office has even prepared a document called "Prisons" in the United States. The focus has been on the quotation marks around the word "Prisons". The document states that "several halls of the United States Capitol have been used at various times for the detention of culprits". The letter adds that "it is not always possible to determine whether these rooms were strictly reserved for the custody of prisoners or used as guard posts. "

United States Capitol Police (USCP) uses several "detention rooms" around the complex for detainees and detainees. There is an official blockage at the USCP headquarters, near the Senate office building Dirksen. Officers usually take people arrested to headquarters for treatment.

Nevertheless, the detention of anyone, particularly Barr, would undoubtedly involve serious preparations. As Attorney General, Barr ranks sixth in the presidency. For now, Barr is in fifth place. The Senate has not yet confirmed Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan for first place. Congress should probably have special provisions for Barr or any other senior official if the legislators imposed an inherent contempt.

This involves some sort of elite arrangement – perhaps on the model of the Willard Hotel.

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The reporters explained to Pelosi why she thought this scorn effort would be more effective than previous drills.

"Because I do it. I just did it, "replied the President. "Do you want to have a contempt of Congress against you? This is not desirable for anyone.

Willard is one thing. But it's another if you are thrown into Washington's grave for a few days.