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Page Number: 37

12 

TRUMP v. MAZARS USA, LLP 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

Committee  members,  and  the  Sergeant  at  Arms  for  dam-
ages.

The  Court  discussed  the  arguments  for  an  “impli[ed]”
power  to  issue  legislative  subpoenas.    Id.,  at 183.    As  the 
Court saw it, there were two arguments: “1, its exercise by
the House of Commons of England . . . and, 2d, the necessity
of  such  a  power  to  enable  the  two  Houses  of  Congress  to 
perform the duties and exercise the powers which the Con-
stitution has conferred on them.”  Ibid. 

The Court rejected the first argument.  It found “no dif-
ference of opinion as to [the] origin” of the House of Com-
mons’ subpoena power: 

“[T]he  two  Houses  of  Parliament  were  each  courts  of 
judicature originally, which, though divested by usage, 
and by statute, probably, of many of their judicial func-
tions, have yet retained so much of that power as ena-
bles  them,  like  any  other  court,  to  punish  for  a  con-
tempt of these privileges and authority that the power 
rests.”  Id., at 184. 

Even after the division of Parliament into two houses, “[t]o
the Commons was left the power of impeachment, and, per-
haps, others of a judicial character, and jointly they exer-
cised, until a very recent period, the power of passing bills 
of attainder for treason and other high crimes which are in
their  nature  punishment  for  crime  declared  judicially  by 
the  High  Court  of  Parliament.”    Ibid.    By  contrast,  the 
House of Representatives “is in no sense a court, . . . exer-
cises no functions derived from its once having been a part 
of the highest court of the realm,” and has no judicial func-
tions beyond “punishing its own members and determining 
their election.”  Id., at 189.  The Court thus rejected the no-
tion  that  Congress  inherited  from  Parliament  an  implied
power to issue legislative subpoenas. 

The Court did not reach a conclusion on the second theory