Everything about Congressional Immunity totally explained
The
Speech or Debate Clause (found in
Article I, Section 6, Clause 1) is a clause in the
United States Constitution which states that members of both Houses of
Congress
Its intended purpose is to prevent a
President or other officials of the
Executive branch from having members arrested on a pretext to prevent them from voting a certain way or otherwise taking actions with which he or she might disagree.
A similar doctrine protects members of
state legislatures in the
United States, most legislators in most
English-speaking countries, and in many other jurisdictions as well.
William Jefferson's FBI raid
In May
2006, following an
FBI raid on the
Capitol Hill office of Rep.
William J. Jefferson (D-LA), some members of Congress have criticized the FBI's search as an unconstitutional breach of this clause. Those who support the FBI's position contend that the clause didn't apply to the search of Jefferson because the congressman was alleged to have committed felonies of accepting bribes, obstructing a previous search, and storing in a freezer the money he accepted in bribery. Also, Jefferson wasn't arrested at the House, and the FBI investigation doesn't concern anything Jefferson said at Congress.
The DC Appeals court has ruled that the search was, in fact, unconstitutional. The United States Supreme Court declined to review the Court of Appeal decision. see: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/washington/31cnd-scotus.html?hp The search of the accused Jefferson's house office was found to be because of a "filter team's" review of all legislative files in that office.
John Murtha Haditha defamation case
On August 6, 2006, Marine Corps staff sergeant Frank D. Wuterich, who led a squad of Marines into
Haditha that killed 24 civilians, filed suit for
libel and invasion of privacy. Wuterich claims that Congressman
John Murtha's comments at a news conference on May 17, 2006 and in subsequent television interviews tarnished the Marine's reputation and constituted an invasion of privacy.
A federal judge ruled on September 28, 2007 that Murtha must testify at the Haditha defamation case. Commentators have expressed concern that Murtha was acting as lawmaker and, therefore, protected by the Speech or Debate Clause. As of September 30, 2007, no appeal has been filed by Murtha, the Justice Department, or the House's General Counsel.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Congressional Immunity'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://speech_or_debate_clause.totallyexplained.com">Speech or Debate Clause Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
