Opinion of the Court, concurring opinion and dissenting opinion in COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, APPELLEE v. DONALD F. MCGAHN, II, APPELLANT.
Opinion of the Court by United States Circuit Judge Thomas B. Griffith.
Concurring opinion by United States Circuit Judge Karen L. Henderson, who concurred in the final result but did not join in all of Griffith’s findings.
Dissenting opinion by United States Circuit Judge Judith W. Rogers.
While the DC Circuit did NOT reach the merits of McGahn’s absolute immunity claim, two of the Judges, Henderson and Rogers, clearly found it implausible.
However, through a rather convoluted process, the panel majority reached the conclusion that the House subpoena is unenforceable.
I think this will go to en banc review and likely be reversed by 7 to 4 en banc.
Long standing precedent clearly points to a reversal.
I would not at all be surprised if Judge Rogers dissent does not become the en banc’s Opinion of the Court.
And remember. Someday, a Democrat will again be in the White House.
A long term outlook would suggest you would not want that individual to have the same ability to engage in blanket stonewalling as you are suggesting Trump should have.
Anything Trump gets today, a future Democrat will have tomorrow.
I don’t want Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Warren, etc., etc., etc., to have the ability to blanket stonewall in the future, as I don’t want Trump to have that ability today. The only way to deny Presidents of the future this power is to fight Trump tooth and nail on it today.
I certainly hope this is reversed. This does not bode well at all for the separation of powers. The executive has been grabbing too much power for decades - and that has only gone on steroids under Trump. It is terrifying that a court would essentially grant the executive the power to rule by fiat. Reversal needs to happen up the ladder.
The court decision says they were right to impeach. Impeachment is one if the tools available to congress when the administration defies a subpoena.
The whining by the GOP that the Dems didn’t exhaust their arguments in the courts was just disputed by the judges.