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On Tuesday, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna introduced a resolution to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in inherent contempt of Congress for failing to comply with subpoenas issued earlier this year by the House Oversight Committee and House Judiciary Committee.
Garland had been asked to hand over certain documents from the Department of Justice related to Special Counsel Robert Hur's investigation into President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents.
"Our founding fathers would not have been pleased with how things are run in Washington, and I am taking steps to change that," Luna wrote in a post on X announcing the resolution. "We do not need a contempt hearing that will die at the DOJ. If they’re not doing their job, we will do it for them and take matters into our own hands to hold them accountable."
According to the National Constitution Center, while contempt power usually involves referring the case to a court or US attorney, inherent contempt allows Congress to "directly enforce contempt rulings under its own constitutional authority," by having the House or Senate's sergeant-at-arms detain the target until they comply with Congress' demands. As CNN reports, this process has not played out in the modern era.
In a statement, Luna claimed that without inherent contempt, first utilized by Congress in 1795, Congress would be "left at the mercy of the other branches to carry out its constitutional duties."
"The framers of our Constitution would never have allowed Congress to rely on the executive branch to enforce its requests for information, especially when the subject in question is the executive branch itself," she added, declaring her move to be "a stark reminder to the Department of Justice that it is not above the law."
Garland had been asked to hand over certain documents from the Department of Justice related to Special Counsel Robert Hur's investigation into President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents.
"Our founding fathers would not have been pleased with how things are run in Washington, and I am taking steps to change that," Luna wrote in a post on X announcing the resolution. "We do not need a contempt hearing that will die at the DOJ. If they’re not doing their job, we will do it for them and take matters into our own hands to hold them accountable."
According to the National Constitution Center, while contempt power usually involves referring the case to a court or US attorney, inherent contempt allows Congress to "directly enforce contempt rulings under its own constitutional authority," by having the House or Senate's sergeant-at-arms detain the target until they comply with Congress' demands. As CNN reports, this process has not played out in the modern era.
In a statement, Luna claimed that without inherent contempt, first utilized by Congress in 1795, Congress would be "left at the mercy of the other branches to carry out its constitutional duties."
"The framers of our Constitution would never have allowed Congress to rely on the executive branch to enforce its requests for information, especially when the subject in question is the executive branch itself," she added, declaring her move to be "a stark reminder to the Department of Justice that it is not above the law."
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