Supreme Court Won't Get Invovled In Jefferson Case
The Supreme Court today decided to pass on a U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruling that curtailed the power of the FBI to search congressional offices. The case arises out of the 2006 FBI search of the House offices of Louisiana Democratic Rep. William Jefferson (he of the "cold hard cash" jokes - at one point he stored thousands of dollars in a refrigerator).
Jefferson is fighting federal corruption charges that he solicited more than $500,000 in bribes for business deals in Africa. He argued that when the FBI raided his offices, they took materials they had no right to have. He said many of the documents taken by the feds were protected by the Speech and Debate Clause, "which protects elected officials from being questioned by the president, a prosecutor or a plaintiff in a lawsuit about their legislative work." The FBI's response was that it had legally obtained a search warrant to conduct the raid.
The question for the Supreme Court was did the clause also apply to searches. The Supreme Court ended up agreeing with the appeals court's ruling that some of the documents taken were indeed subject to the Speech and Debate Clause. Jefferson, they said, should have had the right to look over the documents before they were removed.
As The Swamp notes: "The court's ruling means that the Speech and Debate clause applies to searches by federal agents. The Justice Department complained that the decision would force it to give members of Congress advance notice before a raid is conducted, but the opinion doesn't say that. It simply requires that the member be given some opportunity to review and set aside materials related to the legislative process."
The ruling doesn't mean that Jefferson will get all his personal papers and notes back. The case is now being sent back to a lower court judge who will determine which papers fit the "legislative materials" description and must be returned to Jefferson.
11:54 AM ET | 03-31-2008 | permalink
