Some folks are no doubt outraged by this decision. I'm not, and I'll tell you why -- it appears to me that the appellate court has already implicitly ruled against Jefferson on the issue of privilege.

A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that prosecutors may not examine documents seized from Rep. William J. Jefferson's Capitol Hill office until the congressman has a chance to review them for privileged legislative materials.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ordered the Justice Department to copy the seized materials and show them to Jefferson. The Louisiana Democrat will have two days to go through them and submit any challenges. A district judge will determine whether challenged materials relate to legislative activity and should be withheld from investigators.

Now think about this one for a moment -- this means that the concept of a broad claim of privilege for the everything seized by the FBI is most likely out the window. After all, if the judges were going to rule that way, there would be no need to duplicate everything for Jefferson to review and assert specific claims of privilege. What this seems to mean is that the appeals court is going to rule the search warrant valid, the seizure of materials constitutional, and then consider the possibility that some smaller portion of the seized material might fall under the Speech and Debate Clause or other specific instances of congressional privilege. In other words, Jefferson (and the Congressional leadership that has backed him) have lost before they even walk into the courtroom.

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OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Stop the ACLU, Conservative Cat, Adam's Blog, Stuck on Stupid, Freedom Watch, Blue Star Chronicles, Third World County, Madman Returns, Random Yak

Posted by: Greg at 07:08 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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