Read Jen Selin’s article for The Conversation entitled “Enforcing unprecedented subpoenas for GOP lawmakers turns on complex legal precedent going back centuries” published on May 13, 2022.
Enforcing unprecedented subpoenas for GOP lawmakers turns on complex legal precedent going back centuries
An attempt to force five Republican lawmakers into providing information to the House panel probing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is unlikely to end with the subpoenas issued May 12, 2022.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and the four other Republican holdouts have yet to say if they will comply with, defy or challenge the order. But the question of whether a committee can subpoena a sitting member of Congress is almost certain to be headed to the courts. If it does, Congress’ authority will be determined in part by a little-known provision of the U.S. Constitution called the “speech or debate” clause.
