Thread by @kpolantz

The DC Circuit this week neutered the House's ability to investigate the Trump admin for the foreseeable future, almost certainly through the election.

Their subpoena enforcement power is kaput. Only (unlikely) option left: the jail in the basement! cnn.com/2020/09/02/pol…

One former House counsel says the jail option (holding a witness in inherent contempt) is "a pop gun."

Another former House counsel says, "I'm very very sorry to say that it looks like the House doesn't have much of a hand to play at this time."

And yet ... cnn.com/2020/09/02/pol…

For those interested in learning more about the jail-in-the-basement scenario, where the House wants to enforce a subpoena by sending its sergeant-at-arms to arrest a witness ... This HAS happened before!
After the Teapot Dome scandal!

The Senate was investigating President Warren G. Harding's AG Harry Daugherty. They subpoenaed his brother, Mally Daugherty, who was in Ohio running a bank.

Mally was a no-show, so a Senate sergeant-at-arms deputy went to Cincinnati and arrested him.

Naturally, Mally went to court on a habeus petition (aka, claiming you don't have legal power to decide where I physically am/detain me!). His case went to the Supreme Court.

SCOTUS--with its former President William Howard Taft then as Chief Justice--voted all in favor of Senate contempt power, and its ability to arrest a recalcitrant witness like Mally.
High drama! supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/…

Interesting notes: The Mally Daugherty contempt case was argued in 1924, and it took SCOTUS 2 years to decide. By that time, Mally's brother was long gone as AG, marred by Teapot Dome

Years earlier, AG Daugherty had been an important supporter of Taft's failed reelection bid