A very disappointing morning for those of us who are tired of watching corrupt Congressman operate above the law. The Supreme Court has refused to hear a Justice Department appeal in the case of Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA). First a little background for those not familiar with the case. On May 20, 2006 for the first time in the history of our Country, Federal agents raided a Congressional Office. The office belonged to Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA), and was conducted with a legal search warrant obtained after witness interviews and wire taps gave authorities reason to believe Rep. Jefferson had, or was going to bribe a foreign official. Nine months earlier, a similar raid on Jefferson’s home produced $90,000 in cash in his freezer.

Rep. Jefferson, along with the Democratic leadership argued in court the search overstepped Constitutional protections offered Congressman in the Constitution under Article I section 6, known as the Speech or Debate clause, which states:

members of Congress “shall in all cases, except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place.”

The Justice Department said that declaring the search unconstitutional would essentially prohibit the FBI from ever looking at a lawmaker’s documents.

“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected that claim. The three-judge panel unanimously ruled that the search itself was constitutional but that FBI agents crossed the line when they viewed every record in the office without giving Jefferson the chance to argue that some documents involved legislative business.”

When writing about this incident last May, I was fairly confident an appeal to the Supreme Court would be successful. Here was my initial view on the case:

For starters, this [speech or debate] clause only prevents the arrest of Congressman while in attendance, or traveling to and from Congress. (Incidentally this clause is used by Congressman to avoid ever paying a speeding ticket). This clause however makes no mention of conducting a legal search of Congressional offices. It is also important to note the clause holds an exception for treason, felony and breach of peace, therefore a search of his office to garner evidence in a felony case should be exempt from this protection.

The leading Supreme Court case on the scope of the Speech or Debate Clause is United States v. Brewster, 408 U.S. 501 (1972), In Brewster, the Court stated, “[A] Member of Congress may be prosecuted under a criminal statute provided that the Government’s case does not rely on legislative acts or the motivation for legislative acts. A legislative act has consistently been defined as an act generally done in Congress in relation to the business before it. In sum, the Speech or Debate Clause prohibits inquiry only into those things generally said or done in the House or the Senate in the performance of official duties and into the motivation for those acts.”

Via the SCOTUSblog this morning:

The Supreme Court refused on Monday to hear the Justice Department appeal seeking to restore the FBI’s full authority to search the offices of members of Congress under investigation for crime…

…The Court’s denial of review in U.S. v. Rayburn House Office Building Room 2113 (07-8160) left intact a ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court that gives members of the House and Senate some protection under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause against criminal searches — even with a warrant — of their legislative offices. The specific search at issue involved the office of Rep. William Jefferson, Louisiana Democrat, who has since been charged with bribery and other federal crimes. The Justice Department appeal argued that the Circuit Court’s decision would seriously hamper probes of corruption and criminal conduct by lawmakers.

This is a questionable ruling by the Supreme Court, leaving in tact a lower court’s ruling that the FBI overstepped their bounds when searching the Congressman’s office.

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