Overwrought and wrong

David Dow:

SUPPOSE that a member of Congress, locked in a tight re-election campaign, hired someone to murder his opponent. The homicide occurred, the congressman paid the murderer for the job, and the congressman then hid the dead body in his office. Does anyone think that it would be a problem for law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant and search the congressman's office, looking for the dead body?

The answer, of course, is "no," which raises the question of why the FBI's search of the office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., is raising such a hue and cry. And the answer to that question, it seems, is that members of Congress seem not to care when the government invades the privacy of ordinary Americans, but when their ox gets gored, the outrage cannot be contained.

Acting on the belief that Rep. Jefferson had taken bribes, and having already recovered around $90,000 in cash hidden in Jefferson's freezer, the FBI obtained a warrant to search Jefferson's Capitol Hill office. According to the FBI, when it searched Jefferson's home last year, the congressman attempted to conceal certain documents. Last month, in carrying out a search of Jefferson's office, the FBI seized documents and at least one computer. Democrats feared that their election strategy of painting Republicans as corrupt would be undone by the apparent corruption of one of their own, but then, astonishingly, Republicans themselves — including the speaker of the House — came rushing to Jefferson's defense. What exactly is going on here?

Although it is welcome in this profoundly partisan era to witness a bipartisan congressional movement, this particular instance of congressional unity is absurd. The argument that there is something problematic with the execution of a search warrant in Rep. Jefferson's congressional office has absolutely no foundation in the Constitution. As the Supreme Court has noted, Capitol Hill is not a sanctuary for crime. The Constitution does not protect the offices of any member of government from a search executed in accordance with a validly obtained warrant, nor does it forbid the executive branch from obtaining a warrant where there are reasonable grounds to believe that a crime has been committed.

Against this complete absence of legal authority for their blustering, members of Congress point out that in the history of the nation, no law enforcement agency has searched the office of a member of Congress. That may or may not be correct, but it is irrelevant.

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Congress is so wrong on this issue and so out of touch, it may take an election to get their attention.