Morrison v. Olson
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued April 26, 1988 Decided June 29, 1988
Full case name: Alexia Morrison, Independent Counsel v. Theodore Olson, et al. Citations: 487 U.S. 654; 108 S. Ct. 2597; 101 L. Ed. 2d 569; 1988 U.S. LEXIS 3034; 56 U.S.L.W. 4835 Prior history: Appeal from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Holding
The Independent Counsel Act is constitutional, as it does not increase the power of the judiciary or legislative branches at the expense of the executive.
Court membership
Chief Justice: William Rehnquist Associate Justices: William J. Brennan, Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy
Case opinions
Majority by: Rehnquist Joined by: Brennan, White, Marshall, Blackmun, Stevens, O'Connor Dissent by: Scalia Kennedy took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws applied
U.S. Const. art. II

Morrison v. Olson, 487 U.S. 654 (1988), was a case that went before the Supreme Court of the United States. By a 7 to 1 margin, the Court ruled that the Independent Counsel Act was constitutional. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the sole dissenting opinion. Image File history File links Seal_of_the_United_States_Supreme_Court. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Counties, Cities, and Towns Other countries Politics Portal      The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest judicial body in the... William Hubbs Rehnquist (October 1, 1924 – September 3, 2005) was an American lawyer, jurist, and a political figure, who served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States and later as the Chief Justice of the United States. ... William J. Brennan, official portrait, 1976. ... Byron Raymond White (June 8, 1916 – April 15, 2002) won fame both as a football running back and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. ... Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American jurist and the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. ... Justice Harry Blackmun Harry Andrew Blackmun (November 12, 1908 – March 4, 1999) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 to 1994. ... John Paul Stevens (born April 20, 1920) is an American jurist, and the senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. ... Sandra Day OConnor (born March 26, 1930) is an American justice who served as the first female Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. ... Antonin Gregory Scalia (born March 11, 1936) is an American jurist and the second most senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. ... Anthony McLeod Kennedy (born July 23, 1936) has been an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court since 1988. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: Article Two of the United States Constitution Article Two of the United States Constitution creates the executive branch of the government, comprising the President and other executive officers. ... // The United States Reports, the official reporter of the Supreme Court of the United States Case citation is the system used in common law countries such as the United States, England and Wales, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Australia and India to uniquely identify the location of past court... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Counties, Cities, and Towns Other countries Politics Portal      The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest judicial body in the... United States Office of the Independent Counsel was an independent prosecutor — distinct from the Attorney General of the United States Department of Justice — that provided reports to the Congress under Title 28 of the United States Code, Article 595. ... Antonin Gregory Scalia (born March 11, 1936) is an American jurist and the second most senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. ...

The situation from which the case arose involved subpoenas from two subcommittees from the House of Representatives directing the Environmental Protection Agency to produce documents relating to the efforts of the EPA and the Land and Natural Resources Division of the Justice Department to enforce the Superfund law. Ted Olson was the assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel. President Reagan ordered the Administrator of the EPA to withhold the documents on the ground that they contained "enforcement sensitive information." This led to an investigation by the House Judiciary Committee that later produced a report suggesting Olson had given false and misleading testimony before a House subcommittee during the investigation. A subpoena (pronounced suh-pee-nuh) is a writ commanding a person to appear under penalty (from Latin). ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      House of Representatives is a name used for legislative bodies in many countries. ... EPA redirects here. ... Checking the status of a cleanup site Superfund is the common name for the United States environmental law that is officially known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 9601 to 9675, which was enacted by the United States Congress on December 11... Theodore Bevry Olson (born September 11, 1940) was the 42nd United States Solicitor General, serving from June 2001 to July 2004. ... The Office of Legal Counsel is an American government legal office. ... Order: 40th President Term of Office: January 20, 1981–January 20, 1989 Preceded by: Jimmy Carter Succeeded by: George H.W. Bush Date of birth: February 6, 1911 Place of birth: Tampico, Illinois Date of death: June 5, 2004 Place of death: Los Angeles, California First Lady: Nancy Reagan... U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, or (more commonly) the House Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. ...

The Chairman of the Judiciary Committee forwarded a copy of the report to the Attorney General with a request that he seek the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate the allegations against Olson and two others.

Olson, who was a Constitutional lawyer, attempted to argue that the independent counsel took executive powers away from the office of the President of the United States and created a hybrid "fourth branch" of government that was ultimately answerable to no one. He argued that the broad powers of the independent counsel could be easily abused, or corrupted by partisanship. The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. ... Look up Partisan (political) in Wiktionary, the free dictionary In politics, a partisan is a person who supports a cause, party, or goal fervently, usually to the exclusion of all others. ...

Independent Counsel Alexia Morrison in turn argued that her position was necessary in order to prevent abuses of the executive branch, which historically operated in a closed environment.

The Court upheld the Independent Counsel Act because it did not violate the separation of powers by increasing the power of one branch at the expense of another. Instead, even though the President could not directly fire the independent counsel, the person holding that office was still an Executive branch officer, not under the control of either U.S. Congress or the courts. For the pop band, see Presidents of the United States of America. ... The executive is the branch of a government charged with implementing, or executing, the law and running the day-to-day affairs of the government or state. ... The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States of America. ...

Justice Scalia's dissent

Justice Scalia, the lone dissenter, said that the law had to be struck down because (1) criminal prosecution is an exercise of "purely executive power" as guaranteed in the Constitution and (2) the law deprived the president of "exclusive control" of that power. Scalia, in his opinion, also predicted how the law might be abused in practice, writing, "I fear the Court has permanently encumbered the Republic with an institution that will do it great harm."

Conservatives began to share his concern when in 1992, four days before the election, Lawrence Walsh announced the re-indictment of former defense secretary Caspar Weinberger on charges related to the Iran-Contra affair. Critics also sensed partisan politics when Walsh's office leaked a note suggesting President Bush had lied about his connections to the affair. Liberals also began to share Scalia's concern when independent counsel Kenneth Starr spent $40 million and more than four years investigation on President Clinton's land deals and extra-marital affairs. Many believed the investigation was plagued by partisanship. Caspar Willard Cap Weinberger, GBE (August 18, 1917 – March 28, 2006), was an American politician and Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan from January 21, 1981, until November 23, 1987, making him the third longest-serving defense secretary to date, after Robert McNamara and Donald Rumsfeld. ... In the Iran-Contra Affair, United States President Ronald Reagans administration secretly sold arms to Iran, which was engaged in a bloody war with its neighbor Iraq from 1980 to 1988 (see Iran-Iraq War), and diverted the proceeds to the Contra rebels fighting to overthrow the leftist and... Kenneth Winston Starr Kenneth Winston Starr (born July 21, 1946) is an American lawyer and former judge who was appointed to the Office of the Independent Counsel to investigate the death of the deputy White House counsel Vince Foster and the Whitewater land transactions by President Bill Clinton. ... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ...

Aftermath

Congress let the Independent Counsel Act expire in 1999.

The New York Times of Friday, December 2, 2005 on page A24, said, "[i]n an introduction he gave shortly after the case was decided, (then) Judge (Samuel A.) Alito said the decision hit the separation of powers doctrine "about as hard as heavy-weight champ Mike Tyson usually hits his opponents." The New York Times is a daily newspaper published in New York City by Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. ... See Samuel Alito Supreme Court nomination for details on the nomination process. ... It has been suggested that Balance of powers be merged into this article or section. ... Michael Gerard Tyson, (born June 30, 1966) is a former American World Heavyweight boxing Champion. ...

In February 2006, lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide, argued that Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald lacked the legal authority to bring charges now pending against him. [1] In April 2006, a court rejected Libby's argument, citing the precedent in Morrison v. Olson. [2] I. Lewis Scooter Libby Jr. ... Richard Bruce Dick Cheney (born January 30, 1941), is the 46th and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President George W. Bush. ... Patrick J. Fitzgerald Patrick J. Fitzgerald (born December 22, 1960, in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York) is an American attorney and the current U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. ...

External links

• Morrison v. Olson, 487 U.S. 654 (1988) (full text with links to cited material)

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