Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/19-715_febh.pdf
Page Number: 34.0

Cite as:  591 U. S. ____ (2020) 

9 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

extraordinary”).    Another  opponent  stated  that  the  Com-
mittee had requested a power that had “not heretofore been 
thought necessary to enable that Committee to acquire cor-
rect information.”  Id., at 866 (Rep. Storrs).  A third called 
it  “not  only  novel  and  extraordinary,  but  wholly  unneces-
sary.”  Id., at 874 (Rep. Stewart); see also id., at 884–885 
(Rep. Wright).  No supporter of the resolution offered a spe-
cific precedent for doing so, and the House ultimately au-
thorized  the  Committee  to  send  for  persons  only.    Id.,  at 
889–890. 

This debate is particularly significant because of the ar-
guments made by both sides.  Proponents made essentially 
the same arguments the Committees raise here—that the 
power to send for persons and papers was necessary to in-
form Congress as it legislated.  Id., at 871 (Rep. Livingston).
Opponents argued that this power was not part of any leg-
islative function.  Id., at 865–866 (Rep. Strong).  They also 
argued that the House of Commons provided no precedent 
because  Congress  was  a  body  of  limited  and  enumerated 
powers.  Id., at 882 (Rep. Wood).  And in the end, the oppo-
nents  prevailed.  Thus,  through  1827,  the  idea  that  Con-
gress had the implied power to issue subpoenas for private
documents  was  considered  “novel,”  “extraordinary,”  and
“unnecessary.” Id., at 874. 

3 
By the end of the 1830s, Congress began issuing legisla-
tive  subpoenas  for  private,  nonofficial  documents.    See 
Eberling 123–126.  Still, the power to demand information 
from  private  parties  during  legislative  investigations  re-
mained controversial. 

In  1832,  the  House  authorized  a  Committee  to  “inspect 
the books, and to examine into the proceedings of the Bank 
of  the  United  States,  to  report  thereon,  and  to  report
whether the provisions of its charter have been violated or