CRS VIEWS CONGRESS'S CONTEMPT POWER

>CRS VIEWS CONGRESS'S CONTEMPT POWER
>
>A major new report from the Congressional Research Service provides a
>detailed account of Congress's contempt power, including the use of
>contempt proceedings to coerce compliance with congressional demands
>for information or testimony and to punish non-compliance.
>
>"This report examines the source of the contempt power, reviews the
>historical development of the early case law, outlines the statutory
>and common law basis for Congress's contempt power, and analyzes the
>procedures associated with each of the three different types of
>contempt proceedings. In addition, the report discusses limitations
>both nonconstitutional and constitutionally based on the power."
>
>The 68-page report also examines the Justice Department position that
>"Congress cannot, as a matter of statutory or constitutional law,
>invoke either its inherent contempt authority or the criminal contempt
>of Congress procedures against an executive branch official acting on
>instructions by the President to assert executive privilege in response
>to a congressional subpoena."
>
>See "Congress's Contempt Power: Law, History, Practice, and Procedure,"
>July 24, 2007:
>
> http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL34097.pdf