Notably, the assertion that there is no valid legislative purpose for the committee’s inquiry is the same argument the White House is using to oppose congressional requests for information from the administration. White House counsel Pat Cipollone, in his March 4 letter to Cummings regarding the committee’s inquiry into the White House’s handling of security clearances, relied on the same case to argue that because Congress derives its oversight authority from its legislative powers, the White House must ensure that any request from the committee serves a legitimate legislative purpose. The White House, in essence, sought to reverse the traditional presumption in informational struggles between the two branches—that Congress is generally entitled to receive information and it is the executive branch that must make a convincing argument regarding why withholding such information either protects national security or is in the public interest in order to rely on a claim of executive privilege.
But such claims are disingenuous. The Supreme Court has affirmed over and over that the power to investigate implied by the Constitution’s grant of legislative power to Congress is very broad. Indeed, a portion of the Watkins opinion makes this point:
"The power of the Congress to conduct investigations is inherent in the legislative process. That power is broad. It encompasses inquiries concerning the administration of existing laws, as well as proposed or possibly needed statutes. It includes surveys of defects in our social, economic or political system for the purpose of enabling the Congress to remedy them. It comprehends probes into departments of the Federal Government to expose corruption, inefficiency or waste. But, broad as is this power of inquiry, it is not unlimited."
So what was the limitation on Congress’s investigative power in Watkins? John Watkins was a private citizen and a labor organizer for the United Autoworkers International Union who in 1954 appeared before Senator Joseph McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee. When he refused to answer questions about the communist loyalties of several of his acquaintances, he was convicted of contempt of Congress. The Supreme Court found that his conviction for contempt was invalid under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The court stated:
"There is no general authority to expose the private affairs of individuals without justification in terms of the functions of the Congress. This was freely conceded by the Solicitor General in his argument of this case. Nor is the Congress a law enforcement or trial agency. These are functions of the executive and judicial departments of government. No inquiry is an end in itself; it must be related to, and in furtherance of, a legitimate task of the Congress. Investigations conducted solely for the personal aggrandizement of the investigators or to “punish” those investigated are indefensible."
Viewed in context, Trump’s reliance on the Watkins case is not persuasive: Unlike the House Un-American Activities Committee, the oversight committee’s investigation is not an unmoored fishing expedition into private citizens’ private lives. It is an investigation to determine whether the president of the United States has undisclosed conflicts of interest that may impair his ability to make impartial policy decisions on behalf of the nation, to assess whether Trump is complying with the Emoluments Clauses of the Constitution, and to verify whether Trump has accurately reported his finances to the Office of Government Ethics and other federal entities.
