Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan said members of Congress are not above the law. Can this really be true? Not above the law? Has anyone told them?
Posted on 07/10/2006 1:36:15 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - An FBI raid on a Louisiana congressman's Capitol Hill office was legal, a federal judge ruled Monday.
Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan said members of Congress are not above the law. He rejected requests from lawmakers and Democratic Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record) to return material seized by the FBI in a May 20-21 search of Jefferson's office.
In a 28-page opinion, Hogan dismissed arguments that the first-ever raid on a congressman's office violated the Constitution's protections against intimidation of elected officials.
"Congress' capacity to function effectively is not threatened by permitting congressional offices to be searched pursuant to validly issued search warrants," said Hogan, who had approved the FBI's request to conduct the overnight search of Jefferson's office.
Jefferson had sought the return of several computer hard drives, floppy disks and two boxes of paper documents that FBI agents seized during an 18-hour search of his Rayburn Building office.
At issue was a constitutional provision known as the speech and debate clause, which protects elected officials from being questioned by the president, a prosecutor or a plaintiff in a lawsuit about their legislative work.
"No one argues that the warrant executed upon Congressman Jefferson's office was not properly administered," Hogan wrote. "Therefore, there was no impermissible intrusion on the Legislature. The fact that some privileged material was incidentally captured by the search does not constitute an unlawful intrusion."
The raid on Jefferson's office angered members of Congress, some of whom threatened to retaliate by tinkering with the FBI and Justice Department budgets.
President Bush stepped in and ordered the solicitor general to take custody of the seized materials so Congress and the Justice Department could work out procedures to deal with similar situations in the future.
The president's 45-day "cooling off period" ended Sunday with no compromise worked out but with assurances from the Justice Department that it would not seek to regain custody of the materials until Hogan ruled on Jefferson's request.
Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan said members of Congress are not above the law. Can this really be true? Not above the law? Has anyone told them?
Good point!
Furthermore, why the hell did it take 28-pages for the judge to issue his rulings.
Even with footnotes and prior case citation, I can't believe it took that much paper for him to make his point.
One of your best John! It would be funny, if it weren't so true!
Be careful of "feeling" too much Jaz.....you could be stalked by the libs. ;*)
P.S. I agree!
Apparently some of them did not get the memo:
Mrs. BJ KlinTOON
j F sKerry
Cape Cod Orca
The orca's son Patchy
SINney mcKINney
Dingy Harry Reid
Treasonous Rockafeller
Score one for the good guys...
Jefferson's from New Orleans. He could get re-elected even if he's found in bed with a dead woman or a live boy.
Not meaning to belittle or demean you, just wondering how green you really are.
I'm sure many Congressmen on both sides of the aisle are shocked at that ruling.
Cut the power and go in to investigate. We can afford flashlights.
"Not meaning to belittle or demean you, just wondering how green you really are."
Thanks for not belittling or demeaning me in response to a rhetorical question. Searching the internet? Reading news accounts? Thinking? I'd never have come up with those ideas.
Seriously, why the chip on your shoulder?
If I am not mistaken, the judge was present the whole time to ensure the propriety of the execution of his signed order.
The decision was thus a foregone conclusion.
<< The raid on Jefferson's office angered members of Congress, some of whom threatened to retaliate .... >>
Why not?
Mobsters and racketeers'll always do what it takes to protect their own.
"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress."
-- Mark Twain
That is great news...but I am "deeply saddened"* by the fact that so many Republicans in Congress spoke out against this type of raid. They all think they are above the law.
*deeply saddened - an emotional state where one would like to "R. Kelly"* on your Congressmans $1500 alligator skin wingtips.
*R. Kelly - Dave Chapelebonics for urinate.
That is great news...but I am "deeply saddened"* by the fact that so many Republicans in Congress spoke out against this type of raid. They all think they are above the law.
*deeply saddened - an emotional state where one would like to "R. Kelly"* on your Congressmans $1500 alligator skin wingtips.
*R. Kelly - Dave Chapelebonics for urinate.
"... ALL OF THEM!"
Nonsense! There are a hundred senators, and 435 representatives! There must be dozens of honest men there! Well, ok, 2 or 3, at least. Just one?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.