[This morning I received an email from a concerned citizen that included a link to an article with the headline "House could send Holder to Jailer without Approval of Senate or US Attorney". The article cited as precedent a 1935 case in which a US Senate action for "inherent contempt" against an individual named William MacCracken resulted in his arrest by the Sergeant-at-Arms of the US Senate.
The article prompted a train of thought which I shared with my correspondent. I thought that it would also interest readers here at LTL because it illustrates the need to consider all the ramifications of the Obama faction's assault on the Constitution, which is a far graver crisis for the nation than most people yet realize. It will not be resolved by "going to court", especially since the Judicial Branch must deal with an inability to appeal to Constitutionally warranted Executive power more complete than that of the legislature. At best the opinion of the Judicial Branch may influence the contest for public opinion among the people in their respective States.
We are in a crisis that demands a degree of intrepid statesmanship the present sham party system doesn't tolerate, much less produce. That's because the elite faction leadership in both the so-called major political parties want to burst apart the bonds the Constitution imposes on their abuse of government power, and cast away its cords. (To understand the root of this desire, read and ponder Psalm 2 in the Bible's Book of Psalms.) Here is the reply I sent:]
MacCracken was a private citizen. The present situation is a contest between Constitutionally co-equal branches of the government. The House must use the means the Constitution provides for dealing with civil officials of the US government who are guilty of violating one of the prerogatives of the legislative power which the Constitution vests in the Congress.
There is no Constitutionally warranted executive power in the nation higher than the President. By formally invoking “executive privilege” Obama extends the cloak of the executive power of the United States (rooted in the President’s reprieve and pardoning power) over the Attorney General. If the Sergeant at arms of the House attempts to arrest Holder, he would be engaging in an act of force against the United States, which the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the United States has the duty to resist by force if need be.
Impeachment is the only remedy available to the House which Constitutionally nullifies this use of executive power, since the President has no Constitutional authority to use the Executive power of the United States to protect himself or any other civil official of the US government from the impeachment process. Since the Constitution grants Congress the impeachment power, common sense and reason (as well as the necessary and proper clause of the Constitution) grant it all the powers necessary to implement the process of impeachment, including gathering all documents, testimony etc. the House deems necessary to pursue the process. Any President who invokes Executive Privilege against the impeachment process does what the Constitution says he cannot do. He exercises the protective cloak of the Executive power in the one case the Constitution withholds from its purview. Simply by thus unconstitutionally invoking the power such a President breaches the most fundamental provision the Constitution makes against abuses of Executive power. His act corresponds to the very definition of a high crime, i.e., an immediate attack on the whole society (literally represented in this case by the Constitutionally empowered House of Representatives engaged in the performance of its duty.) But this is not true until and unless Congress moves to use the power of impeachment, whether against Holder or Obama.
As I say in my WND article this week, impeachment is the only way. (If you follow the link in the article to my blog post re impeachment of Obama for his abusive EO on immigration, the discussion in that post explores the ramifications of dealing with an abusive occupant of the White House, including the role the States might be called upon to play. If you fully appreciate those ramifications, you realize that this is the gravest crisis our country has faced since the Revolution. If the Constitution is to survive, it will require more understanding and courage than the GOP leaders have ever shown, or seem likely to show. I look at the reasons for that in another recent post on my blog.
