# Committee on the Judiciary v. Miers **Status: stub — expand.** **558 F. Supp. 2d 53 (D.D.C. 2008).** The House Judiciary Committee's suit to enforce subpoenas to former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, arising from the U.S. attorney firings investigation. The district court rejected the claim of **absolute immunity** for senior presidential advisers from compelled congressional testimony, holding that a former adviser must appear and assert privilege question by question. The case is cited in modern subpoena litigation for two things it did *not* decide. The suit had been authorized by a resolution of the full House, and **no party contested whether the Committee had a cause of action** — the court simply proceeded, which is why the question resurfaced in [[Committee on the Judiciary v. McGahn]]. The second lesson is the clock. The litigation ran roughly nineteen months and was dismissed following a negotiated accommodation, **without a merits decision on appeal** — the ordinary ending for a chamber's enforcement suit, and the reason the civil route is described as slower than the Congress that files it. ## See also - [[Congressional Subpoena Enforcement Flow]] · [[Committee on the Judiciary v. McGahn]] · [[Executive Privilege]] · [[Congressional Oversight]]