I have recently started a blog at Some Moore Ideas where I will be putting forth proposals to address some of the long term problems facing our country, as well as offering commentary regarding political developments and issues of public interest.
Several days ago, I posted a commentary on Speaker John Boehner's invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress without notifying the Obama administration before doing so. In this commentary, entitled Boehner Is Playing a Very Dangerous Game,
I begin by discussing what the possible effects could be of Boehner's attempts to sabotage the negotiations with Iran about halting Iran's nuclear weapons development program. While I was researching this, several other things came to mind which I outlined in the last part of the post.
While conducting my research, I ran across the decision by the Supreme Court in United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. In that case, the Supreme Court upheld that the President had "plenary and exclusive" powers regarding foreign policy. In his majority opinion, Justice George Sutherland wrote, “In this vast external realm, with its important, complicated, delicate and manifold problems, the President alone has the power to speak or listen as a representative of the nation. He makes treaties with the advice and consent of the Senate; but he alone negotiates. Into the field of negotiation the Senate cannot intrude; and Congress itself is powerless to invade it.”
Because of the Supreme Court's decision in the Curtiss-Wright case, it seems to me that Speaker Boehner may very well have violated the Logan Act when he decided to attempt to sabotage the negotiations with Iran by inviting Prime Minister Netanyahu to address Congress. According to a publication by the Congressional Research Service entitled Conducting Foreign Relations Without Authority: The Logan Act. “The Logan Act, codified at 18 U.S.C. § 953, states: Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”
Although I’m not an attorney, it seems to me that since Boehner has invited Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress two weeks prior to the Israeli elections, Boehner may also be in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Under definitions in FARA, “(1) any person who acts as an agent, representative, employee, or servant, or any person who acts in any other capacity at the order, request, or under the direction or control, of a foreign principal or of a person any of whose activities are directly or indirectly supervised, directed, controlled, financed, or subsidized in whole or in major part by a foreign principal, and who directly or through any other person—
(i) engages within the United States in political activities for or in the interests of such foreign principal;”
I have only hit upon the major points here that I made in my blog post about these issues. There I go into more details about why I feel that Speaker John Boehner should be investigated as to whether or not he may have violated these two federal laws.