Facts: Watkins was subpoenaed to testify in a congressional hearing to investigate alleged wrong doings of the Attorney General and the department of justice. Throughout the questioning the congressional committee asked questions that could result in Watkins incriminating himself because of his political beliefs. Due to this Watkins evoked his 5th Amendment right not to answer the question. By doing so the congressional committee indicted him and the Court of appeals upheld Congress's claim.

Question: Does Article one of the Constitution bestow to congress the power to interrogate citizens out of a court of law? And can the 5th amendment be used in a congressional committee hearing?

Decision: The decision was to reverse the judgement of the Court of Appeals and to dismiss the indictment.

Reason: Congress must be able to conduct investigations especially into "surveys of defects in our social, economic, or political system," claimed Chief justice Warren, in order to allow congress to relive those issues. With that in mind Congress has no authority to expose private affairs of persons without it being pertinent to the legislation in question. The Bill of Rights was app

lied to the Constitution to ensure safety of individual rights from and overbearing Congress. Congress can not ask vague questions to accidentally fall onto the answer(s) they want, specific questions must be used to retrieve the needed information.

Reasoning: The primary reasoning is that a law must go through a very systematic process with the House of Representatives, Senate, and before becoming law must be presented to the President. This is a provision in the Constitution in Art. 1 section 7 clause 2.

Barenblatt v. United States (1959) 360 U.S. 109

Question(s): Is the legislative veto constitutional through Article 1 section 1?

Question(s): Is the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 unconstitutional? Does Congress have the right to delegate its powers?

Some common words found in the essay are:
John Mistretta, Reason Congress, Watkins United, East Indian, Smith Act, Article Constitution, House Representatives, Due Watkins, Decision Found, Missouri Reasoning, court appeals, 1st amendment, congressional committee, court appeals questions, house representatives, 1 section, communist party, 5th amendment, political beliefs, veto section, 244 2, section 244 2,
Approximate Word count = 804
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)