Transcripts For CSPAN2 Supreme Court Oral Argument On Congressional Subpoenas For President... 20240713

To President Trumps financial records. This is an hour and a half. The honorable, the chief justice and the associate justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Supreme Court of the United States give their attention, god save the United States and this honorable court. The first case we will argue today is case 19715, donald trump versus masers usa. Mr. Strawbridge. May appease the court, the subpoenas here are unprecedented in every tenth before these cases no court upheld the use of congress subpoena power to demand the personal records of a sitting president , no kitty to committee had tried to tell of the personal papers, let alone to the purpose of considering potential legislation. There is a reason this is the first time a Congressional Committee has attested a gambit. It is long been understood since congress and subpoena power is applied, it is auxiliary ends subordinates, when that power is deployed against the president , and must yield any longstanding tradition or compelling showing of need, the committee can satisfy neither condition here and that should decide this case. The committees contend of the subpoenas satisfy the limits this court has applied to congressional subpoenas. But their arguments would render those limits meaningless, for example, they contend that this court should ignore the committees about improper purpose so long as they tack on a broad reference to potential legislation. They claim that congress can you subpoenas to uncover individual wrongdoing simply because that will always inform this is physician c of laws, they challenge the ability to question the constitutionality of the potential legislation that they rely upon. The committee is obvious overreach is to validate the subpoenas in a typical case, but the court simply does not proceed against the president as it does gives an ordinary individual, the committee has not tried to show any critical legislative need for the documents the subpoenas seek. It is no secret the relationship between the house of representatives and the president is frayed but this is not the first or the last time that one house of congress will be onto the president , the role that the Court Applies will not affect this president but the presidency itself. The court should deny committees and reverse the decisions below. Mr. Strawbridge, i want to make sure that i understand the scope of your argument, your brief begins by questioning whether the house has any power to subpoena president ial records but you seem at the end of the brief to pull back from that. You say that such subpoenas pressed the outer limits of congress authority and that there is every reason to doubt whether subpoenaing the personal documents of the president is a necessary incident of lawmaking, do you concede any power in the house to subpoena personal pipe under papers of the president. I think its hard to imagine that the house is ever going to have the power pursuant to its legislative powers to subpoena the records of the president , quite frankly, the house has limited powers to regulate the presidency itself, i think its very difficult to imagine a situation where its implied power to subpoena. Thats another formulation for what i was just focusing, difficult to imagine, reason to doubt, in other words interposition recognized in a particular case that the congress, the house may have such authority and in such a case it would be for the courts to decide whether is exceeded any bounds in that situation. We have argued at a minimum this court should apply the demonstrated need standard that is applied in other cases when theres an attempt to process the targets to president. So you say there is some power in the house, you think theres a high standard, and understand the house to concede that there is some limit to its authority, is something at the end of the day, this is just another case where the courts are balancing the competing interest on either side. Is that the wrong way to look at it. I dont think that were asking this court to do anything different than it has to do with an ordinary case, were just noting the strains upon the powers of congress are emphasized in this case because this is the separation of powers dispute. Thank you council, Justice Thomas. Justice thomas. Justice ginsburg. There are so many prior cases, there was a cooperation for example, tax returns, every president voluntarily turns over his tax returns, so it gets to be a pitched battle because President Trump is the first one to refuse to do that, initially he said because in order that was ongoing, now it seems to be broader than that. But the oura of this case is really telling to the goose to serve the gander as well. So how do you distinguish the whitewater when president clinton personal records was subpoenaed from his accountant or even Hillary Clinton law firm was subpoenaed, it seems in prior bases, you say this one was oneofakind but it seems in prior cases it was a much greater collision of interest. How do you distinguish all of those cases, whitewater, the jones case. Your honor we distinguish them in a number of ways with respect to watergate and whitewater, obviously those are cases that are relatively recent vintage and in separation of powers dispute and all canning look back for a much longer precedent for the type of issue that needs to be examples of the separation of powers and the recent examples, theres just a handful of them that the house identifies are two recent under that stricture as a recognized in southwest general. Now its also important to note that almost all those cases, i think they involve cooperative efforts and is a recognized below consent is not the major constitutionality, none of those cases is there a challenge to the scope or to the power of the legislative committee in that case to request the documents. Thank you council, Justice Thomas. Thank you chief, counsel, and very interested, do you think that there are any implied powers for the congress to request or to subpoena private documents. I think that there might be limited powers in some cases for the house to subpoena private documents although the court has been very clear in walkins in a number of cases that they back any to power. Would you define what you mean by that limited power. We dont call with the general notion that they have some implied power to exercise the legislative powers. And we recognize that in some cases, congress has been able to seek information that would be directly relevant to its consideration of potential legislation, but as the d. C. Circuit recognized in the select committee and judge livingston recognized below, they will take the view of forwardlooking information and aggregated information and not attempt it reassemble a precise actual history. In the d. C. Circuit opinion says that this information or subpoena should be requested under the impeachment power, what is the line between the subpoena legislative subpoena and in impeachment related subpoena. And kilborn, this court recognizes that their student under very different powers and wimpy impeachment is pending before anybody of the house, the ability to the subpoena is a incentive without to the court. Of court intercourse Court Subpoenas are not limited prethat has no bearing because the party and committees have weighed in ul reliance impeachment nor could these committees, they dont have jurisdiction over impeachment Justice Breyer. I would like to followup on both Justice Thomas and Justice Ginsburg question, to Justice Thomas question, are you saying that urban subpoenas which were done under the legislative power at the time of watergate which was fairly broad, are you saying they were unlawful that a court should not enforce them, yes, sir no. And as to Justice Gaines first question, i would like to know why since the watergate and other cases, watergate particularly, the court gave contested material involving the very workings of the president ial office to the prosecutor, why isnt whatever standard applies to personal papers a weaker one, not a stronger one. If i can answer the last question first, i think the court cannot refuse to see what others see in the threat in this case of subpoenaing decades worth of papers, not only of the president but of the president s family members in his children and grandchildren as the house is done in this case, those are obvious and problem harassment and infringement of the ability to discharge his duties 24 hours a day, my congress it is never in recess in these types of subpoenas are going to be particularly troublesome and burdensome. You say a weaker case, whatever it is, why wouldnt whatever standard applies to personal papers before the presidency, be equal to or weaker than the standard for material that is the workings of the administration at the time. Setting aside any executive concerns which i understand is not the focus of your question, the answer is because this court has repeatedly emphasized and kilborn in walkins that congress has any power to inquire into the private affairs of any individual, that is distinct from whatever interest they have a half informing themselves about the government, now the informing power does not extend to the president , he generally applies to lower executive Branch Officials and agencies. What about the first question, is the urban can committee unlawful. We do not argue that we do not need to address the power of impeachment because its not an issue in this case. Justice alito. Counsel, are there any circumstances in which a house of congress can justify a subpoena for a sitting president s personal record on the ground that it wants to use president as a case study for possible broad regulatory legislation. I think it is difficult to imagine for a couple of reasons, one is even setting the aside the fact that the as required some showing that the information being is pertinent. I think the scope of the subpoena that is issued here create Serious Problems even in ordinary cases. But to answer the question, no, the president s personal papers are not related to anything having to do with the working of government and to empower the committee to simply declare him a case study is to open the door to all sorts of oppressive request, you could have subpoenas directed seeking all jimmy carters financial history simply because he used to be a peanut farmer and they want to case study on agriculture. You can have request for medical records, educational records, any imaginal detailed record because congress does have the general power to legislate multifarious. I ask you one other question, i think you said congress has limited power to regulate the conduct of a president , does congress have any power to regulate the conduct of the president which is an office that is crated by the constitution itself and not by congress. The answer to that, i think its clear from the case, its not very much which is why it applies to avoidance principles to avoid having to decide whether congress has attended to reach a president. The one example obviously in recent history as the nixon versus general ministry of services case, even in that case, it was a limited right regarding president ial documen documents, one could imagine some hypothetical weather limited personal paper that might be relevant to a question regarding custody to official documents but in that case lets say the constitutionality of the statue was affected and not seeking the president s personal paper that controlled the executive branch. Justice. Counsel, there is a long, long history of congress seeking records and getting them as Justice Ginsburg pointed out from president. In some of those cases we have said, especially that a congressional subpoena is valid so long as there is a conceivable legislative purpose and the records are relevant to that purpose. I see a tremendous separation of powers problem when youre talking about placing a heightened standard or clear statement in various formulations of this on an investigation that the committee is embarking upon, i understand your complaint about the Financial Services subpoena on the Money Laundering issue. But are you disputing that the stated purpose of the Intelligence Committee subpoena at issue investigation efforts by foreign entities that employs the political process. And related to the financial records that those are irrelevant to that purpose and that the illegitimate purpose by the Investigative Committee and the Intelligence Committee. Taken the relevant question first, even if you accepted it, there was legitimate legislation that could be had that reach the president because what were seeking his president ial finances im sorry, not president ial finances, were asking for personal tax returns before he became president , theres a very different thing and were not asking him to produce it as some of the subpoenas that congress through history as far back as 1792 have asked for personal papers of the president while being president , this is before he was president , i dont understand, they are not his papers in the sense of, hes not in possession of them, these are to private entities. Theres a number of issues there, with respect to the custodian issue, this court going back has recognize the ability of a person who scanned the president s records of the third party to come and challenge them, and thats certainly the case here. Those papers have to do with the privilege question and theyre not personal papers, all those cases have to do with papers that belong to the office of the president , again these are personal papers. Briefly counsel. They did not raise the issue, they were personal papers. The main point i would make, whatever presumption this court has applied in cases that involve separation of powers, and should not put any fear on the scale for Congress Legislative power in this case and indeed in numerous separation of powers starting with kilborn it declined to extend any presumption that congress had an illegitimate power, that was true below the d. C. Circuit and in the Senate Select Committee Case in the at t cases. Justice kagan. In mourning, i think about this case, this is not the first conflict between congress and the president as many of my colleagues have pointed out and we never had to address this issue, the reason is because congress and the president have reached accommodation with each other and sometimes one is gotten more and the other has gone more, but there has always been this accommodation seeking and what it seems to me youre asking us to do for the scales between the president and congress and essentially to make it impossible for congress to perform oversight and to carry out its functions concerned. Youre right when you said before, this isnt going to be the last such case, i wonder whether that fact is not a good reason to reject your proposed rule. I dont think thats the case, and for several reasons, the fact that this is the first time that congress has attempted to subpoena the scale and the scope of documents from the president another historical case involved the subpoena with the documents in the way this one does. I think it requires this court to draw a line, its unfortunate that the house did not attempt to seek these documents from the president or engagement negotiations but ran to thirdparty custodians and enforced president to bring this in one thing that has the effect of limiting the defense that the president can bring but even on the just as the court has always applied in the scenario the subpoenas fail every hallmark of legitimate legislative investigation. Ahead sorry. Whatever Power Congress has to conduct oversight or informed itself to government, these documents are not relevant to that, that power does not extend to the president who has a separate constitution officer. I think some former president s may contest the idea that the subpoenas go further than theyve ever gone before, this gets me back to Justice Breyer is that the subpoenas are for personal records where the president is just a man, theyre not for official records where the president might have executive privilege where we have to worry about the conduct of government and about the way the executive branch operates. As with Justice Breyer, i guess i would like to hear your views on why that ordinance would suggest theres a lower standard, not higher when. A guess because the fact that they seek documents does not mean theyre not targeting the president and the Oversight Committee and the financial house Intelligence Committee have identified the president and his role as president as a motivating factor for the investigation, secondly this court has noted even in Clinton B Jones when it rejected immunity argument to ensure the president is not going to face undue harassment or destruction and the necessity to accommodate him, we think thats best accommodated at a minimum by applying the demonstrated need standards. Justice cours, i would like k up there where you left off, theres no demonstrated need and no substantial legislative purpose, the house is before us and im sure were going to hear from them that there is substantial legislative need, why should we not defer to the houses views of its own legislative purposes. For several reasons, to begin the subpoena power is implied power in this court made clear that congress cannot use its implied power to challenge a structure government, the subpoena targeting the president s personal documents is a challenge to the separation of powers, and morrison, the court did not apply a presumption on either side of the dispute because it was a battle between the branches as justice kalil pointed out in his opinion, there is no need for presumption on either side and what might apply an individual in the president own powers that are created by the constitution, and this court with Justice Marshall and ordinary litigant with the instruction im sorry to interrupt you, why is the subpoena supported by substantial legislative need. There would be three answers, congress has not identified with any specificity what valid legislation should they enact that directly reaches the president even if it has and has not identified how documents going back and upwards of ten years in some cases completely unlimited in seeking the most minute financial details not only about him by his children and his grand children every critic card swipe and every check has anything to do with some purpose that would actually be permissible legislation, i think any allowance of the case study rationale has relied upon in the Services Committee is the door to enlist subpoenas in any one Party Controls one house of congress opposite of the president. Thank you counsel, justice kavanaugh. Thank you chief justice and good morning mr. Strawbridge, on their argument that the nixon demonstrated need standards should apply critical standard and explain how that would play out and practice in a case like this. In a case like this where congress is asserting his desire to enact general legislation, i think its when you be very difficult, i dont hold up the possibility that they can meet the demonstrated needs, i dont complete the roll out the possibility although it think its telling that the house devoted all of one sentence to each of the subpoenas attempting to assert very broadly that they need the demonstrated need criteria. If the own situation in which congress had put forth the statute and they needed some information to decide to enact the statute and it was valid and for some reason the president s personal papers were necessary to inform congress and perhaps in that case and be them demonstrated need statute. I imagine that any of the subpoenas could come close given how far back they look and how the drug that they set up, these are the subpoenas that the court said very specific questions about whether theyre attempted to expose a wrongdoing as opposed to achieve a valid legislative and. Secondly following up on justice kagans point about the future, on page six of the bri brief, you say it is likely that civil litigation wouldve been foreclosed have the committee issued them to the president and you say this case is different because the subpoenas were issued to a thirdparty custodian and theres an implicit assumption that i just want to make sure of the aston a court order that the private custodian plan to comply with the subpoenas even if the client requests them not to comply. Is that correct. The recipients of the subpoenas have indicated that they consider to be a dispute between the president and house of representatives and absent of some court order regarding its validity they feel obligated to comply, this court needs to recognize it is not reasonable to expect in a situation the thirdparty custodian to risk contempt of congress whether collateral consequences and there needs to be a vehicle to allow for review, especially in this case for the president is suffering a personal injury. Thank you counsel. Mr. Chief justice mary pease the court. These cases are truly historic, three Congressional Committees have targeted not the records of the president by his personal records striking back years before he was a candidate for office, the potential to undermine the president and the presidency is playing and not much to ask but they dove into the personal life and explaining some meaningful way what law that is considering and why it meets the president s documents in particular. The subpoenas dont come close, every two problems for the house, they cannot satisfy any standard since the separation of powers and indeed this course has not decided serious constitutional question, the full house itself has not confronted. You spend a lot of time in your brief documenting that the purpose of the subpoena was investigatory and is that appurtenant consideration, i wonder how a court is supposed to look at it, should a court be probing the mental processes of the legislators, should numbers of house committees be subject to crossexamination on why you were really seeking these documents. No mr. Chief justice, im going to be clear, i dont think any of that would be permissible, all were saying, you should review the subpoena on the basis of the contemporaneous adoptive record that is the basis for the legislative subpoena themselves, so we are not in our brief turn to legislator statements, we have not said that they should be able to get discovery into their mental processes were like, we have said the chairman cummings memo shows the objective purposes wrongdoing but more important i would point to the mismatch between the breath and the duration of the subpoenas has been there purposes, i think were set to all three, they dont match up with what the Committee Say theyre doing if you work with information or seeking. Thank you counsel, Justice Thomas. What if following up on the chief justices question what is clear from the statement you reviewed but their intention was actually to remove the president from Office Rather than the pretextual reason that it is for legislative reasons. I think you can look at the statements and we have not urged that, i think they make clear that the subpoenas are not a valid legislation, thats only enumerated power to which congress has pointed here in the house is not relied on impeachment so you can see the tension subpoenas are invalid, to try that into his question earlier, i think were not asking to go back and look at what they said or prove their processes, im just saying if you look at pages 46 and 54 and you look at what they actually say about their intended legislative proposals and why they need the documents, its paperthin, they dont give you any specifics on what theyre thinking about doing or any specifics on why they need the documents and is not an accident, thought carelessness or thoughtlessness, its because the purpose here is to expose wrongdoing in the house is never really tried to substantiate white needs these documents and service and as legislative powers. Thank you. Justice ginsburg. One must investigate is to bring the legislation and to have in mind and what legislative change and reduce or eliminate the problem, for example, the ethics in government, Congress Needs to be from the legislation, and may also decide that the Financial Disclosure purposes, they should be disclosure of tax returns those legislative purposes investigate to see if you need legislation of that, and then to imputed congress motive and even the policeman if it stops the car and the car went to the stop sign, we dont allow an investigation into what the subjective motive really was, so here youre distrusting congre congress. Justice ginsburg, i absolutely agree that congress can investigate and service of what legislation might be needed, our submission is much more modest of when that inquiry involves the president that you need a higher standard with respect to purpose for regulated the president was so much narrower with respect to private party and because of the dangers of harassing a distracting and undermining the president , that the common theme that runs for the court cases that the president get some measure of protection because you can proceed against the president as against an ordinary litigant, all im saying that the congress hasnt met the standard here. How does that work out Justice Breyer. Following this, assume as i do that for reasons in an opinion by judge griffis, were not very good court at the side he disputes between two powerful political branches so it should be rare, so it is in front of us, why not apply the standard that is ordinarily applied to every human being and the United States in respect to the grand jury of subpoenas. Any human being in the United States, when he gets a subpoena can go to a judge is a judge, is this overly burdensome, then he has a chance to show it. And here if its a president the court has already written and polly jones two or three paragraphs of the kinds of things that the president has or are special or special need not to take his time et cetera that we do object to the decision of this court that says apply that, taking into account the special needs of the presidency just like other human beings sometimes have special needs, they might be an emergency medical worker et cetera. I would on two grounds, first the court in the d. C. Circuit have rejected the analogy of the grand jury by prosecutors, these are legislative subpoenas, not something issued by the executive branch or entirely different interest in different concerns, the subpoenas have a valid legislation into probe wrongdoing, the second is, to take your question and i think what Justice Ginsburg is going to get, we do think the analogy is helpful, the court rejected an absolute immunity but said the president was entitled to some special protection and were say the court should take exactly the same approach, were not seen the house has no power to get at the record of the sitting president and to satisfy heightened standard, because if it doesnt these requests will become routine in that weapon in the standing arsenal of the houses of congress will be routinely deployed in a way the harms of separation of powers and undermine the presidency. Justice alito. Could you apply the standard that you think is appropriate to the subpoena from the house Intelligence Committee. Sure justice, there the Intelligence Committee is investigating foreign influence in recent elections, but the subpoena goes back to 2010, it does not link any way to foreign transaction and it targets only the president , i have no idea why one would serve a subpoena that broad in a duration of one is concerned about of a specific topic that would applied i think the candidates were generally more nearly a foreign transaction in a recent transaction and there is nothing in the red brief that explains the mismatch, on the other side, the Financial Services committee is investigating Money Laundering after the 2008 financial crisis but it subpoena only goes back to the middle 2016 and the president , none of this makes any sense, what youre doing is in aid of legislation. Justice ginsburg referred to legislation concerning Disclosure Requirements that would apply to the president and is also mention conflict of interest legislation that might apply to the president , does congress have the power to regulate the president in these ways. I pick it very unlikely on the interest side that even the d. C. Circuit would not rely on that because of the serious constitutional questions that would pose if you disabled the addictive from the executive branch, the Financial Disclosures, and guess what i would say, if the house that explained with any what it might want to do with the government act, then why and meet the president s documents, we can have a debate, i think the room is narrowed but the United States, not saying theres no room, we dont even get there because all they say is we might want to amend the eda, ceg h. R. 1 which is the bill that the house passed before issue the subpoenas, its very hard to shoot at the target and dark, i dont know what the house wants to do with any specificity, its hard to say whether the valid legislation. Justice . That is the issue it doesnt have a chance to determine what might be valid into the can actual law and say it may or may not be valid, youre asking the court in a heightened review standard to speculate as to legislation that is not unaffected . I went to go back to the subpoenas that have issued, you know that the Intelligence Committee goes back ten years but i think it is fairly Common Knowledge that mr. Trump before he was president was thinking about running for president for a long period of time, why is it that congress cant believe that looking at wrong standing relationships and how those relationships changed or did not change is important to knowing what undue influence might be occurring. Once they do that, our submission is very modest, it needs to do more than general purposes and say that the president would be a useful case study for prospective and generally applicable laws, again im not denying. And what other setting does any investigative body have to do more than what was done here. I would report to the prosecutor. For private record. For this particular question has not come up to any constitutional context, and nixon of course the prosecutor had assured demonstrate a specific need when the Senate Select case, the progression of committee. Please i dont want you to go to executive privilege cases, i want you to go to papers indisputably had nothing to do with mr. Trump while he was a private person. They are not asking for these records, posting president , theyre asking for these recor records. I think that makes the problem worse, not better, they are targeting the personal life of the president before he was a candidate for office, that is somewhat different but deeply troubling and deeply problematic constitutional concern i would like to go back to your use of clean b jones, because i had read that case differently, of course clinton said that you are supposed to treat the president s request with respect when the president says i need a deposition schedule at a different time or can we have written in the target tories rather than a deposition but the fundamental claim of president ial immunity or even president ial difference was rejected in that case, i suppose what i like to know about your argument, i read your brief and i read the president s own brief that no place do you make a case as to why these particular subpoenas place a particular burden on the president such that he will be prevented from carrying out his constitutional responsibilities. Thats what i took Clinton B Jones to be sane. Thats the kind of thing a president has to come in and show a case specific argument about burden on the president , are you making that kind of argument at all. Yes and no, my burden is compiling and delivering the documents of house, yes you mean by burden is what i think lynn b jones, which is harassing and undermining the president , exactly the subpoenas you not undermining the president , the point of those is presumably to harass and undermine the president , the court let them go, let them proceed, and said the only thing that we are going to be concerned about is if you come into us and say in defending those suits, you will be prevented from performing the responsibilities that we the nation needed to perform, are you making an argument of that kind . Yes when the house was pressed in the limit, is that the probably it cannot draw the blood of the president or believe in teenage diaries, how is it seeking and will reshape and transform the balance of the separation of powers, yes, we are saying these subpoenas speak in the aggregate more to the house has this weapon will harm and undermine the presidency of the United States, not to since president , he thinks the presidency going forward. Justice. Counsel, i believe in further discussion, you indicated that Congress Might be able to regulate the area Financial Disclosures to the president , that is one of the interest the house has asserted here what more would you require the house to do to assert that interest, what would be enough in your mind to demonstrate the height need you suggest is needed . I dont think it has to go provision by provision or anything like that, but i do think he has to describe the possible legislation with enough eccentricity to judicial reviews, we know the president s acquired to do certain things from the ethics in government act. Let me stop you there, im sorry to interrupt, let me stop you there, lets say there considering legislation on whether to require president ial candidates to disclose tax returns for certain number of years, without be sufficient and if not why not. I think that might be and then you have to look at what theyre going after, it wouldnt get you anywhere near the subpoenas or targeting the president of course, at least in your hypothetical, they would be identifying with some details and some and then we would see what the hog constitutional question of the space by congress in regulating a constitutionally created officer like the president with respect to disclosures, thats frankly hard question, thats a hard possible legislation they appointed two. I dont see how we can have a debate in this case, they have not even enabled meaningful judicial reviews, that should cut against the house not against the president. Justice capital. Thank you mr. Chief justice and good morning, i want to make sure we touch on your procedural arguments, you say that the full house needs to authorize the subpoenas, the other side, the house organizes 507 did so, what your response to that. The response was 507, if you look at his terms, its over a blank check, and reports to authorize anything and everything that ever has been done or will be done by the committee and even of the fairly resolution of walkins which at least describes general purposes, general legislative topics that my policy would Justice Court shoots him here were talking about the president , another three committee chairmans, i do think 218 members of the house have understood that they understand the gravity of the constitutional question, the court author has a clear statement for congress, we see e thing here, that the cleanest and nearest way to this case. Second question, history and practice matter quite a bit and separation of power in cases as you know, Justice Ginsburg earlier cited president from watergate and whitewater as did Justice Breyer, can you respond in those that would legislative subpoenas, can you respond to those points about those president s. For the first 200 years of the republic, theres nothing like this, the house either didnt involve the president. Im sorry to interrupt but specifically, watergate whitewater. Thats what i was coming to calmly the watergate was for official records and obviously they were subject to height need standard but whitewater subpoena is the closest analogy, is modern and never litigated, that looks very much like this one, i dont think that there is any historical precedents for it and the concern again, we go down this road and the houses of congress to weapon is the subpoena power in a new way, and a standing arsenal for years against the president and any other constitutional created officer and i dont think it takes much of imagination of where that will lead or will we regret having taken it. Thank you counsel. Mr. Chief justice, man please the court, i would like to jump right in and address the key poinsettia been made by my friends. My very good friend mr. Wall said the legislation here does not match up, mr. Wall referred the court to the wrong patients of our brief, if you look at pages 17 through 36, you see that they discussed in great detail in the d. C. Circuit said that in telling terms has put legislation where his mouth is. We have specifically provided. Mr. Walsh said the full house did not confront the subpoenas page 241 of the appendix, where the house specifically referred to these very subpoenas, the specific ones meant to say the 218 members of the house did not know what they were doing when they passed, the obviously is not a valid argument to be made for something that came out the key records here. President trump has not even seen, we want records from thirdparty business entities that on their analyses of request for loans, these are documents that theres no privacy interest in, no constant old journal or et cetera. Next, we do have limited principles, that house very much does, the president set those, must be pertinent to a vegetative purpose, cant violate constitutionally protected liberty interest or privileges and cant undermine the president s ability to carry out his responsibilities. Lets talk about the standard you propose, the quotes in your brief is that concern is subject on legislation could be had, could you give me a plausible example of a subject that you think is beyond any legislation that congress could write. Your honor, the best i can do is the courts decision in kilborn where the court there said that congress didnt seem to put forward any possible legislation there that had to do with bankruptcy proceedings that congress was looking into. Do you think bankruptcy proceedings is a subject on the legislation that cannot be had. Obviously bankruptcy could be in the kilborn case, this thought that no such reason had been put forward but no, congress is legislative authority is extremely broad especially because of the procreation. Im not suggesting your test is not much of a test, its not a limitation. And it doesnt seem in any way to take account of the fact that they were talking about corner branch of government, the executive branch, do you have any alternative to that limitless test to take account of the fact that youre dealing with the corner branch of government. Yes, i do, by the way the test im referring to is a test that this court had said to a purpose but your honor indexes versus psa in a number of othert the power, that is why we are wondering around the wilderness trying to determine what standards we are to use. This court has explained in quite a few cases, that congress is legislative power which investigated power stems from the British Parliament power is an obvious and integral part of legislation, we obviously cant have Congress Passing legislation and ignorance. , this court has said enfranchised tax court, just because the power is to be implied does not mean is not important that this court and our judicial review, that was not mentioned in the constitution. Another example of the power that legislative power that is implied. Im sorry your honor, im not coming up with that right now off the tip of my tongue. Are you giving me the earliest example that you had of the legislative the congress investigated the sinclair expedition, it didnt actually issue a subpoena in that case but is equivalent of the time in president washington consulted with his closest advisors and decided to provide Congress Every single thing that it requested. That was just several years with the first example of congress issuing a legislative subpoena to a private party for private documents. Im sorry your honor, the decision has a lengthy discussion of that, i dont have it off the top of my head the very first one but my memory is this Court Describes in great detail in watsons. Thank you. Justice ginsburg. The concern is been expressed that congress could be using the subpoena power to arrest a political rival, what is your answer, what is the principal, the limiting principle that was a legitimate legislative purpo purpose, looking toward enacting wrong to not harass the president from the opposing party. To answers your honor, first this courts decision, which is extremely important here, the grain was not seeking papers of the president but they are the lower court struck down to the subpoena was no good that your congressional investigation was no good because it was inspired by politics. This in flatly and unanimously rejected that as a reason that it could not be done and the other is clinton versus joan where this court said if there is harassment, the courts can take care of it and thats the answer to the Justice Departments entire brief, there is no responsible claim for everything going on is harassment and if there is this court has said, we are here. Thank you. Justice breyer. Thank you. In respect to the authorization, the authorization the full house of the legislative subpoenas. Two points, one says look at the subpoena and its authorization at the time when the subpoena was issued, they are perhaps the time that it was challenged first. Before the later authorization in the full house was passed, to compare it with the Senate Select committee on president ial Campaign Activities via nixon, look at the authorization, the authorization there is highly detailed, highly specific in his suggest they could go after information held by any person presumably including the president. This authorization which came after the challenge, in fact writes a pretty blank check for anything without detail. Now, those are arguments made by the other side, i would like to hear what do you say. Thank you Justice Breyer, several responses and ill try to be quick. First the court said very, very clearly, you dont just look at the authorization, there was no authorization there, second, yes resolution 507 is in part broadly worded but it is extremely specific in its third whereas clause on page 241 it refers to these very specific subpoenas, and in addition authorization is much different now in the modern congress, the modern congress has authorized Committee Chairs committees to issue subpoenas and those committees have in general delegated that authority to its chairs, the modern congress, there clearly is authorization Committee Chairs to issue the subpoenas and as i said, if theres any doubt at all about that, the full house ratified these very specific subpoenas. Before or after army before or after they were issued and challenged. This is after they were issued and challenged, the issue is authorized by house rules which this court has said it will not examine and then the full house because there were arguments made in the full house said we authorized these exact subpoenas, we ratify the issuance of the subpoenas, it is extremely clearly worded, page 241 a of the petition appendix. Thank you. Justice alito. I was somewhat baffled by your answer to Justice Ginsburg about the use of congressional subpoenas for purposes of harassing the president , your final answer was the courts cant take care of that but thats the issue here, whether something should be done to prevent the use of the subpoenas for the harassment of a president , can you explain. Absolutely, this court in clinton versus jones and other cases like nixon versus gsa has said we are here to protect the president if there is harassment from congress or private individuals. And here there clearly are valid legislative purposes the all found that there was im going to cut you off but i have very limited time. Or does that include the potential for the use of subpoenas solely for the harassment of political purposes. They were solely for harassment and for them to meet the standards put an end to the legislative purpose. I think the combination of all of those provide ample protection. Its correct because this court has said congress has power is to legislate and is extremely broad especially when you take into account appropriations. You can think of a single example of a subpoena that would reach that test. Its things like executive privilege. Its been regarded as middleclass and Congress Says we want to study the revisions of the tax laws and services to the members of the middleclass that we are going to subpoena. For considering that legislation would be permissible . It certainly could be, your honor. Its a very good question. Here remember the Financial Services committee is doing extremely broad investigations of the Financial Service sector and there is Massive Public reporting before we became president , the personal records and his businesses and family are heavily involved in those very activities. Justice sotomayor. Council, we have said that personal records with the aim of making the president case study to run afoul of the court teaching that there is no congressional power to expose the sake of exposure. It could be the pass on educational reform legislation or subpoena of this personal medical records. Its what we say to ensure against those hypotheticals. And against a proposed subpoena. Just for the sake of exposure it is no good, the court said that exposure involving government activities can be pertinence would be the key to the valid legislative purpose and here the Intelligence Committee there is an obvious need to focus on the president s financial records to determine if the president is subject to foreign leverage. Its obvious that it ties in with that legislative purpose. Im sorry to interrupt you, but we are limited on time. On that issue, i can see the argument, but are there already a lot of disclosure laws in place and how could this investigation help improve those or change those . I assume it is by the president so they would have to look to see what the Oversight Committee was looking at. Do we need better laws about the conflict of interest or about a president dealing in contracts with Government Agencies. If the congress could limit Government Agencies ability to enter into or keep contracts with elected public officials. In addition, congress may be would want to provide for more exposure of assets and public of interest. Was the breadth of the subpoena litigated below . Yes, your honor, those claims were made and discussed in greater detail by the Second Circuit and the dc circuit, so those were fully medicated below. In talking to the chief justice about the limits on professional power, and antonius im quoting you correctly you said if it couldnt impair the constitutional functions, is that right . There would have to be a balance. But that is what we should be looking at. And then you said no such claim has been made or could be made and i also took the briefest month to be making that claim that it would carry out the constitutional functions. He told me that he was kind of making such a claim because he thought that it would undermine the president in his job and i guess i would like you to comment on that. Its fascinating because i wrote a note specifically on it. That argument wasnt made in the Justice Departments brief to my knowledge anywhere. My friend mentioned it here but theres no way that this could interfere because he doesnt have to do anything. It is to banks and an Accounting Firm and as i said before, some of the key documents the president probably has never even seen or doesnt know that they exist. We want to know th the banks analysis with the request of the lone internal link analysis but yes, the argument wasnt made in the briefs. If i could get you to talk about the history some of your colleagues talked about, what do you think it shows us with respect to this issue . It ties in with the key principle history can help inform what the constitution means that theres a lengthy thy history of president s either voluntarily or not voluntarily complying with requests for information by congress and they went through president s washington, jackson, buchanan, grand and in more modern times nixon, carter, reagan and clinton all complied with either voluntarily or not. For instance in the nixon case, nixon voluntarily tried but he didnt provide all of them. Congress then baltimore pursuant to Statutory Authority like a subpoena from president nixon and his familys tax returns. I dont think either the Justice Department or mr. Trump answered that hypothetical. History really matters here and it shows the arguments being made by President Trump are astonishingly ask you to ignore or a massive amount of history. Thank you. Justice gorsuch. Normally be used lawenforcement investigative tools to investigate known crimes not to pursue individuals defined crimes. That is a principle that you are well familiar with in your time in the department of justice and im wondering what principle you offer us here that can prevent the danger. The first one youd have to be pertinent to the legislative purpose but i think that as we explore, that is very, very broad and maybe limitless to suggest on the other side at least. It can be burdensome. Its that the value that you share. I answered this way because again it has to be im going to stick to the legislative purpose because for example, congress did a massive investigation of what happened on 9 11. Its possible this person jaywalkers or failed to pay his taxes or whatever his concern is. What takes us out of that realm and concern . I think that this will largely depend on the only thing taken out of that concern is as we know, congress cant prosecute. Its overturning the key criminal conviction involving whitecollar crime. Obviously congress could do a very thorough investigation to determine whether to pass a different criminal law statute its going to be very difficult to separate the two. Its whether to amend the criminal statute. Its going to be allocated on congress as part. Justice kavanaugh. Thank you mr. Chief justice and good morning mr. Ledger. I want to followup on the line of questioning that several of my colleagues have pursued the chief justice, Justice Ginsburg and Justice Alito and others which i think come down to the idea of when it was authority and how to deal with that. The other side says allowing these subpoenas and safer medical records would be a grave threat in the open season they say on private record of anyone president and maybe other government officials, too and they worry about the harassing nature of the subpoena like that. You say come and he was just exploring this, so long as it is pertinent to the legislative purpose but i think everyone has explored with you that just about everything can be characterized in terms of the subpoena pertinent to the legislative purpose i dont think you can answer the chief justice question. The question then boils down to how can we both protect the house interest in obtaining information it needs to legislate but also protect the presidency, how can the Court Balance those interests, and i guess the thing i would say why not employ the demonstrably critical standard and this is something the other side would say as something that is from a different context that might serve to balance the strong competing concerns here. That is a very good question. I have several responses. The first one goes to the last thing you said about why not an and play the test. I dont know how the courts would do that without violating the separation of powers. I was reminded recently by the congressional leaders often they are doing investigations they dont know where the legislation might go with that at that point so i dont know how you would force congress to show some kind of demonstrably critical wouldnt it be the same way that its shown in the investigation where executive privilege in that context has been the tried and true method for about 50 years. Because then, your honor, you could demand that the executive branch show that its reason for seeking something outweighs the executive privilege claim. But we are not dealing with executive privilege at all. These are financial business records. Its difficult to see how these could ever come within that kind of balance that would override the authority to do investigation. But one other thing i can suggest is nixon versus fitzgerald ripcord shares the president has absolute immunity from other kinds of claims but the court said specifically one of the reasons that is the case because we have congressional oversight. The court specifically used that to justify absolute immunity for the president in other areas and last is clinton versus jones. What about medical records. Medical records i think would almost always been not pertinent to the valid legislative purpose. On the other hand, why not. 25th amendment they certainly would be. Why wouldnt they be pertinent to say at the healthcare legislation or the like in your view . Im having difficulty thinking of a hypothetical where if the congress is examining and deciding how the president s personal medical records would be relevant to that. The most important Public Health statute i dont think would be affected by that at all so we come up with some of the hypotheticals where president ial health would be relevant may be changing the statutes that involve the succession of funny president becomes incapacitated i believe Something Like that, but in general there would be no valid reason for congress to be asking for the president s personal medical records that i can think of. I know youll be delighted to learn that we have time for additional questioning. So i think i will begin with myself and then they will go through in order to see how far we get. One thing that hasnt come up is the fact that we are dealing here with three separate committees and we are concerned as youve recognized the potential for verizon and how does that play out, whats number of committees investigating the president s personal papers that may factor in the analysis of the issue but her announcement . It would seem to me that there are situations again he would have to look to clinton versus jones and when does it reach a particular stage. In fact the subpoena by the Intelligence Committee matches. Specifically they didnt want to cause too much of the burden. How does that factor in and should those be counted in the balance of the District Attorney in new york depending upon Party Composition and different parties in the future. You might have the senate joining in. How did you measure it indicates like that. There will be at a certain point where it would affect the ability of the white house and president of function they are through the three private businesses involving. At some point there is a straw that breaks the camels back. Why dont we look at all of them and the fact that whether some point it debilitates. If there are a massive number of subpoenas from the house and the senate through the white house can come in and say we can do anything. Why was he limited to the house and senate . It could be every grand jury, every prosecutor, the concern we had in the clinton cases that at some. 1 could be manageable but 100 could be impossible. Your honor is right and therefore if they were on top of numerous others around the United States you could look at that but our subpoenas are to private business entities nothing is required if the president here to be fully complied with. Not a single thing is required if the president or the white house. Justice ginsburg, any further questioning . It goes to a private person for tax returns but the subpoena that ive seen goes far beyond that. Its applied at the entities and they asked for all documents related to the opening of the Due Diligence closing request for information by other parties etc. That is a lot of information and some of it is pretty vague and if somebody had to subpoena youu for that information or your tax accountant or somebody in your business, wouldnt you at least want to know what was being turned over and what did you want to ask and might not take time and effort . My problem is there maybe burdens, thirdparty or not and not just political but job of the house and senate in part. But the clinton v. Jones information does bother me and the fact that what i told to dave also apply to the future senator mccarthy asking Franklin Roosevelt or hear each room in exactly the same questions, that bothers me so what do i do . I fully understand the concern. None of the recipients have complained about the burden. The reason they go back a ways because you know im not talking about their burden, im talking about the president s burden in having to monitor and decide if there are privileges, figure out what his answers are, to all those documents you are requesting which go in my opinion way, way beyond just tax returns. Money requires looking at a whole range of financial activities. Its what they do when they are looking at Financial Sector and what kind of reforms should be made to the banking industry. But let me say one more time theres been no claim of privilege, theres been no claim that there is a burden, no claim whatsoever so those may be relevant in Different Cases but certainly not this one. Justice alito. If one house of congress were to subpoena personal records in the hands of the party regarding a member of the other house someone in a leadership position do you think that the doctrine of the separation of powers would impose any limitation on the subpoena asked very interesting question. The first thing that comes to mind is whether that violates the cause no member of the house or senate can be questioned anywhere else and so if there is a request for records if it is tied in in any way to the legislative functions of the senator or house member, that would be invalid. They dont have anything to do with the performance of the legislative function and they are regarding the personal activities of this individual purely personal activities and we can even say certain things were done before the president was elected to congress. Its part of your hypothetical debate but never lets be pertinent to the site of purpose. The committee wants to use somebody in the leadership position as a case study for possible legislation. If it meant a hypothetical, i think that would be valid. Im not aware that its ever happened in the history of the house or senate. I dont know of any that would be like that. Anything further . That is the whole point, isnt it . Justice alito is raising a hypothetical because he says should and then we look at history and its only moderate history where the committees have asked for personal papers, so he presumably would discount that and he would say shouldnt we respect the separation of powers that whats personal to the president is similarly personal to a congressperson. I have to disagree strongly with one thing you said. We have history seeking personal papers jackson, buchanan, grant etc. Theres been lots of personal papers by congress for many, many decades. This isnt just a modern practice at all. I wonder if i could ask you to comment on the one hand the oversight and intelligence subpoena and on the other hand, the Financial Services subpoena. The first two address the president directly to the Financial Disclosures for president s make, conflict of interest, foreign involvement of president ial campaigns. But the Banking Committee was taking a broad scope and when the congress doesnt seem to be looking to the president but a much broader topic, might there not be a heightened need for congress to say why it is that they are focusing on that for this . I think that still wouldve madthat still left meraise mete. There are 11. Only two of these entities have to do with the president. This is a much broader investigation. And last, there is Massive Public reporting about the subject of the subpoena and banking practices into Deutsche Bank and capital one have both been sanctioned many millions of dollars. Its pertinent to the legislative purpose with almost no limiting principle at all at least i think that is what some of the questions have explored. The court articulates to lower the standard that Something Like that. Fullstop happening that is the concern ive heard identified or that i took away from that hypothetical so i want to give you a chance to respond to that hypothetical and why it wouldnt spy role. I appreciate that chance. Two responses. Remember first exactly what the courcourt did in clinton versus jones and one of the briefs, but the court said we are going to let this happen to. It might be there to get into fo things like the privilege information or information involving constitutional liberty interest none of those would apply presumably under what you articulated a. Its a clear decision but obviously the courts are going to monitor this, so its contrary to what has happened in the past, our lengthy history if there are situations would you like to take a minute to wrap up . saying before, remember some of the key records are ones the president has never seen or had anything to do with it we ask the court to focus on the specific subpoenas in the case because we are not dealing with what is. Thewe are not dealing with situations like a lot of the Justice Department arguments focus on. As i said before, fortunately the court exists to fix those kind of situations should they arise. You have two minutes for a rebuttal. In the limited principle or category that wouldnt be obtainable in the theory and i think that is very telling because there are no limits to the theory. And in particular lets consider the example that was given. In the case studies they would send a subpoena to the medical records and the president eats and drinks like everybody else and naturally had the ability to regulate food safety. But that doesnt Mean Congress can subpoena medical records. Theyve ruled out the hypothetical categorically. That is constant with the fact they failed to consider what the actual legislative need is, it is in the legislation in the warrants to investigate the wrongdoing going back ten years. He says a laundry list of the proposal following those past and the issue and at no point in the argument section of the briefing o or to date as he trid to tie any particular legislative proposal specifically to the president in the documents that they seek. This isnt an attempt to preserve the separation of powers but it is on that point i wanted to note the question i may have misunderstood the Watergate Committee did serve a congressional subpoena under the legislative power and applied the heightened need standard that invalidated just in this court invalidated the attempt to hold in contempt somebody when it violated the separation of powers just at the lower court to prevent separatioagreed and s square they been pursued. Its definitely to multiply if the Court Accepts the path the house is attempting to lay out. The positions below should be reversed. Thank you. Thank you, counsel. The case is submitted. More from the Supreme Court. Considering another case involving President Trumps finances and issue trump versus vans is whether the president has immunity from the subpoena for financial records on related to his duties as president. The county District Attorneys office is seeking the information including the president s tax returns as a part of its investigation into the alleged misconduct by the trump organization. This is just over an hour and a half. We will hear the arguments next on case 19635, donald trump versus vance. Mr. Sekulow. No County District in the history has issued criminal process against the sitting president of the United States and for good reason. Accordingly the supremacy clause that beats any authority under the state law as to the president. The Second Circuit is wrong and shall be reversed and if not reversed, the decision weaponize is 2300 local djs and an overwhelming number of them are elected to office and are thereby accountable to their local constituencies. The decision would allow anyone to harass, distract and interfere with a sitting president. Subject to local prejudice that can influence prosecutorial decisions and at the same grand