Inherent Contempt (for those who need reminding...)

[Chichiri]

From Wikipedia:


Following the refusal of a witness to produce documents or to testify, the Committee is entitled to report a resolution of contempt to its parent chamber. A Committee may also cite a person for contempt but not immediately report the resolution to the floor. In the case of subcommittees, they report the resolution of contempt to the full Committee, which then has the option of rejecting it, accepting it but not reporting it to the floor, or accepting it and reporting it to the floor of the chamber for action. On the floor of the House or the Senate, the reported resolution is considered privileged and, if the resolution of contempt is passed, the chamber has several options to enforce its mandate.

Inherent contempt

Under this process, the procedure for holding a person in contempt involves only the chamber concerned. Following a contempt citation, the person cited for contempt is arrested by the Sergeant-at-Arms for the House or Senate, brought to the floor of the chamber, held to answer charges by the presiding officer, and then subject to punishment that the House may dictate (usually imprisonment for punishment reasons, imprisonment for coercive effect, or release from the contempt citation.)

Concerned with the time-consuming nature of a contempt proceeding and the inability to extend punishment further than the session of the Congress concerned (under Supreme Court rulings), Congress created a statutory process in 1857. While Congress retains its "inherent contempt" authority and may exercise it at any time, this inherent contempt process was last used by the Senate in 1934, against a U.S. Postmaster. After a one-week trial on the Senate floor (presided by the Vice-President of the United States, acting as Senate President), a former Postmaster, William P. MacCracken, was found guilty and sentenced to 10 days imprisonment.

[Chichiri]

1. bump -- what's the word on JC's willingness to invoke IC?

[madinmaryland]

2. "presided by the Vice-President of the United States, acting as Senate President"

Hmm. Is that going to kill the whole process?

[Chichiri]

4. The Senate need not even be involved.

Not if the House is the one citing inherent contempt.

[KoKo]

8. That's the big Fly in the Dessert! VP Cheney willl preside over the Trial in Inherent Contempt...

He will NOT recuse himself...so Inherent Contempt would be DOA if it's true what WIKI reports that the VP has to preside. SHIT...:-( I thought John Dean was recommending this. I guess he left out the VP part.

[helderheid]

3. Thanks! So is Conyers going to do this with Meiers?

[Chichiri]

5. Dear God, please let that be the case . . .

I'm not sure if he's made mention of it. He might have.

[ThomWV]

6. They are already half way there

Think about it. The subcommittee has done its part, now it goes to the full committee, and next to the floor. Conyers won't stop now, to do so would be an utter defeat for him.

[Bandit]

7. Punishment is only good as long as that particular Congress is in session

About six months left I believe if it is considered a new Congress every year but even if a new Congress is every two years it means only about a year and a few months left so the punishment is quite limited.