Earlier this month my @MyConstitution colleague @aphatak wrote a piece in @Slate about why the DC district judge hearing the @WaysMeansCmte suit to obtain the President's taxes was wrong to put a pause on those proceedings. slate.com/news-and-polit… 1/x
@MyConstitution @aphatak @Slate @WaysMeansCmte The judge said he was pausing the case to wait for a decision in a different D.C. Circuit case, but as @aphatak explained, "[t]he two cases raise different issues," and there was no judicial principle that required the judge to wait. 2/x
@MyConstitution @aphatak @Slate @WaysMeansCmte And this matters because in this case justice delayed could be justice denied. slate.com/news-and-polit… 3/x 
@MyConstitution @aphatak @Slate @WaysMeansCmte #Yesterday, the House filed a motion with the court asking it to lift the stay. As the House explained, "[t]his case has been stalled long enough." 4/x
@MyConstitution @aphatak @Slate @WaysMeansCmte The House motion makes several important points. First: DOJ's position in the @WaysMeansCmte litigation that the House can't enforce subpoenas in court has been "disavowed by President Trump in the Senate impeachment trial."
@MyConstitution @aphatak @Slate @WaysMeansCmte Second: the @WaysMeansCmte lawsuit present issues that simply are not presented in the case currently pending in the D.C. Circuit and thus will not be resolved by that case. 6/x
@MyConstitution @aphatak @Slate @WaysMeansCmte Third--and this is so important--the @WaysMeansCmte lawsuit to obtain the President's taxes has been pending for more than six months. 7/x
@MyConstitution @aphatak @Slate @WaysMeansCmte Back in *April* of last year my @MyConstitution colleague @beccadamante & I wrote in @ShallTakeCare about @WaysMeansCmte's request & noted that Congress could go to court to enforce it & could ask the court to move quickly. takecareblog.com/blog/what-cong… 8/x
The House has now asked the court to move quickly--and it has done so repeatedly. There's no reason why this case can't be moving as quickly as other oversight cases that have been moving expeditiously through the courts. 9/x
And it should be moving quickly because the stakes here are huge. This isn't just about whether this House gets this President's taxes, but about whether Congress can engage in oversight in the face of an obstructionist President. 10/x
As I wrote in the @TheAtlantic, "congressional oversight is a critical component of the Constitution’s system of checks and balances." theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/… 11/x
And another critical component of the Constitution's system of checks and balances is a judicial system willing to play its role in resolving legal disputes. The pending dispute in the @WaysMeansCmte litigation is one that should be decided sooner rather than later. 12/12
