Student Note on Speech or Debate

Devotees of the Speech or Debate Clause will want to check out Jack Raffetto’s note, “Balancing the Legislative Shield: The Scope of the Speech or Debate Clause,” which appears in the Spring 2010 issue of the Catholic University Law Review.  Focusing on the D.C. Circuit’s decision in In re Grand Jury Subpoenas, 571 F.3d 1200 (D.C. Cir. 2009) (quashing grand jury subpoenas seeking former Representative Tom Feeney’s communications with the ethics committee), Raffetto argues that Speech or Debate protection for testimony or information submitted to a congressional ethics committee should turn, not on whether ethics case relates to a personal or official matter, but whether the case or investigation for which the subpoena was issued relates to a matter outside the member’s legislative capacity. 

As far as I know, this is the first law review article not written by me which cites Point of Order.

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