Eastland v. United States Servicemen's Fund

Eastland v. United States Servicemen's Fund, 421 U.S. 491 (1975), was a United States Supreme Court case that defined the limits of Congress's authority to issue subpoenas. In an 8–1 decision, the court found that Congress was within its constitutional authority to issue a subpoena for the banking records of the United States Servicemen's Fund.^[1] The U.S. Constitution's Speech or Debate Clause barred the court from questioning the good faith of the committee's investigation.

Eastland v. United States Servicemen's Fund
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued January 22, 1975 Decided May 27, 1975
Full case name	James Eastland v. United States Servicemen's Fund
Citations	421 U.S. 491 (more) 95 S. Ct. 1813; 44 L. Ed. 2d 324
Argument	Oral argument
Decision	Opinion
Holding
The activities of the Senate Subcommittee, the individual Senators, and the Chief Counsel fall within the "legitimate legislative sphere," and those activities are protected by the absolute prohibition of the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution against being "questioned in any other Place," and hence are immune from judicial interference.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William O. Douglas · William J. Brennan Jr. Potter Stewart · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist
Case opinions
Majority	Burger, joined by White, Blackmun, Powell, Rehnquist
Concurrence	Marshall, Brennan, Stewart
Dissent	Douglas
Laws applied
Speech or Debate Clause, U.S. Const. Amend. I

Background

James Eastland

James Eastland was a Democratic senator from Mississippi, who supported American involvement in the Vietnam War and chaired the Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security. The United States Servicemen's Fund (USSF) was a non-profit organization that was outspoken in its opposition to the war.

Eastland's committee subpoenaed the USSF's banking records.

Consequences

Eastland v. United States Servicemen's Fund was cited in court cases involving the Tax returns of Donald Trump. Trump claimed that Congress had exceeded its authority in subpoenaing the returns.^[2]