House Republicans File Brief Siding with White House in Subpoena Battle

Throughout the House Judiciary Committee’s struggle to obtain White House documents and have Harriet Miers testify about the U.S. Attorney firings, House Republicans adopted a contrary stance.

They’re firm believers in Congressional oversight, they said, but citing Miers and White House chief of staff Josh Bolten with contempt of Congress was the wrong way to go. If they lost the battle in court, then the executive would come out much stronger. It would “make the presidency in America, a much stronger, imperial office,” as Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) put it. Democrats, of course, think we’re already there.

Well, now House Republicans have brought their opposition to court. In a filing yesterday, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO), House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Rep. Cannon asked the court to allow them to file a brief in the case arguing against the House’s suit and with the administration. They are just trying to save the House from itself, they write:

High among amici’s reasons for opposing the actions of the House and the Committee were their deeply held concerns that a decision by the courts in a suit inviting them to enforce the subpoenas could fall against the Committee, severely undermining the House’s ability to exercise its oversight authority over the Executive Branch in the future. It is their continuing interest in the preservation of the House’s oversight prerogatives, and in sparing the courts a premature need to enter into this dispute, that prompts them to offer their views to the Court as amici.

All sides will argue before the court in a hearing set for June 23rd.