Waxman: Abuse Of Police Powers To Achieve Political Goals Fine By Me

By GARY BAISE
Politico
Having served in the Nixon administration at both the Department of Justice and the FBI, I know firsthand what can happen when government officials start using police powers to achieve political and policy objectives. It can lead to a dangerous abuse of power and establish ominous precedents that threaten the civil liberties of every American.

Unfortunately, with House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman’s recent decision to subpoena 52 of the top insurance companies in the country — which demanded a sweeping array of documents and information (some of which are highly confidential and proprietary) — our government appears to be trying to punish these companies for speaking out on an issue of public interest and importance.

Incredibly, Waxman (D-Calif.) wants more information from these companies — which are not accused of any wrongdoing and have never taken a penny in government bailout money — than he recently demanded from the banking and auto industries that received billions in taxpayer dollars from Uncle Sam.

Considering that we are in the middle of a hotly contested debate about health care reform, it is no secret why Waxman wants these insurance companies to do opposition research on themselves., And nobody should be surprised when Democrats cherry-pick the most damaging subpoenaed information to leak to the media in order to help the party turn the insurance industry into a boogeyman.

As corporate counsel for several trade associations, I have been surprised that this chilling warning shot across the bow of every American who wants to exercise his or her First Amendment rights has not generated a stronger response. Who is next?

Reasonable people can discuss or agree or disagree on the current health care debate, and reasonable people can disagree about the issue of executive compensation. But reasonable people should not disagree about the propriety of using police powers to achieve political objectives. Simply put, the ends do not justify the means under our Constitution (no matter how legitimate the objective may be), and this overreaching subpoena is based on politics — not law.

Imagine, for instance, that a future Republican-controlled Congress decided to enact a series of restrictions on the activities of labor unions and — in order to make its case — subpoenaed documents about salaries, expenses, conferences, events and other activities in order to mine the data for ammunition.

I thought Nixon taught us that we can never mix politics and police powers. In fact, some of us resigned or were fired during the Saturday Night Massacre in order to prove that point.

Regardless of what people think about health care reform or executive compensation, there should be no debate about the government’s use of police powers to stifle debate and retaliate against law-abiding Americans for exercising their First Amendment rights on this (or any other) issue.

That is wrong — regardless of the end objective. In fact, it is a dangerous precedent that the current Democratic leadership will regret in the coming years, when Republicans will inevitably take back control of some future Congress.

Gary Baise is an attorney with the law firm of Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Bode Matz in Washington. Prior to going into private practice, Baise, who resigned during the Saturday Night Massacre, served in numerous positions in the Nixon administration, including acting deputy attorney general, associate deputy attorney general, executive assistant to the acting FBI director and chief of staff for the Environmental Protection Agency.