“A divided federal appeals court has upheld the power of legislators in the House minority to demand records from the executive branch. Acting in a dispute over records related to President Donald Trump’s luxury Trump International Hotel, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday, 2-1, that lawmakers can resort to the courts to enforce an obscure statute known as the seven-member rule” Politico reports.
“The law, which dates to 1928, allows any seven members of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee to demand that any executive agency turn over any requested information related to the panel’s broad mandate. The Trump administration argued that the lawmakers lacked standing to turn to the courts to force disclosure of the records, but the majority on the D.C. Circuit panel disagreed. ‘The separation of powers, it must be remembered, is not a one-way street that runs to the aggrandizement of the Executive Branch,’ wrote Judge Patricia Millett. ‘When the Political Branches duly enact a statute that confers a right, the impairment of which courts have long recognized to be an Article III injury, proper adherence to the limited constitutional role of the federal courts favors judicial respect for and recognition of that injury.'”