The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation

• *" The Court confirmed the power to punish for a past contempt as an appropriate means for vindicating "the established and essential privilege of requiring the production of evidence."[111]

Criminal Prosecutions

Under the rule laid down by Anderson v. Dunn, imprisonment for contempt of one of the Houses of Congress could not extend beyond the adjournment of the body which ordered it.[112] This limitation seriously impaired the efficacy of such sanction. Accordingly, in 1857 Congress found it necessary to provide criminal penalties for recalcitrant witnesses, in order to make its power to compel testimony more effective. The Supreme Court held that the purpose of this statute was merely to supplement the power of contempt by providing additional punishment, and overruled all constitutional objections to it saying: "We grant that Congress could not divest itself, or either of its Houses, of the essential and inherent power to punish for contempt, in cases to which the power of either House properly extended; but, because Congress, by the act of 1857, sought to aid each of the Houses in the discharge of its constitutional functions, it does not follow that any delegation of the power in each to punish for contempt was involved;

• • *."[113] In a prosecution for wilful failure of a person to produce records within her custody and control pursuant to a lawful subpoena issued by a committee of the House of Representatives, the Supreme Court ruled that the presence of a quorum of the committee at the time of the return of the subpoena was not an essential element of the offense.[114] Previously the Court had held that a prosecution could not be maintained under a general perjury statute for false testimony given before a Congressional committee unless a quorum of the committee was present when the evidence was given.[115]