Washington Post Article Stresses the Library of Congress’s Name, but Largely Ignores Judicial Precedent …
From Saturday’s Washington Post story; the subhead is,
[Title:] It’s Called the Library of Congress. But Trump Claims It’s His
[Subtitle:] The case is the latest example of efforts by the Trump administration to erase the traditional lines that separate the branches of government.
[First two paragraphs:] The Trump White House has a new target in its campaign to expand executive power: the Library of Congress. Never mind the name—administration lawyers are now arguing that the main research library of the legislative branch doesn’t actually belong to Congress at all.
A legal push to claim the Library as executive turf isn’t a one-off. It’s the latest move in a broader effort by President Donald Trump and his administration to erase the traditional lines that separate the branches of government….
Later paragraphs likewise give the Administration’s actions with regard to the Library as part of “the Trump administration’s disregard for the separation of powers.”
But this material seems to entirely ignore (with one exception I’ll note below) what courts have actually said about this legal question. Those precedents have routinely recognized that the Library of Congress, despite its name, is indeed part of the Executive Branch and subject to Presidential control—and that the President’s power to remove the Librarian is a feature of the traditional separation of the branches, not a violation. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held last year,
As we have recognized, the Librarian is a “Head of Department” within the Executive Branch. Intercollegiate Broad. Sys., Inc. v. Copyright Royalty Bd., 684 F.3d 1332, 1342 (D.C. Cir. 2012).
And the Intercollegiate Broad. Sys. D.C. Circuit decision said (emphasis added),
To be sure, [the Library of Congress] performs a range of different functions, including some, such as the Congressional Research Service, that are exercised primarily for legislative purposes. But … the Librarian is appointed by the President with advice and consent of the Senate, and is subject to unrestricted removal by the President. Further, the powers in the Library and the [C
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