{"id":3736,"date":"2026-06-24T17:37:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T17:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3736"},"modified":"2026-06-24T17:37:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T17:37:59","slug":"lawyers-for-rep-lamonica-mciver-force-judges-to-weigh-the-limits-of-congressional-immunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3736","title":{"rendered":"Lawyers for Rep. LaMonica McIver force judges to weigh the limits of congressional immunity"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>\n            Do the legal protections for members of Congress hold even if they\u2019re charged with assaulting a federal officer? That\u2019s the question three federal judges considered Wednesday for nearly two hours in the case against Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver.\n    <\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3732\">The most controversial fossil site in human evolution just got even more puzzling<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n            One of the first questions asked by the panel of judges in Wilmington, Delaware, waswhether a member of Congress, during their legislative duties, would be protected if he \u201ccomes across a teenage girl and gropes her.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cIsn\u2019t this as weak a case as I hypothesized?\u201d Judge Stephanos Bibas, who President Donald Trump nominated in his first administration, asked McIver\u2019s attorney during Wednesday\u2019s hearing.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            In 2025, McIver was charged with assaulting an officer during her visit to an immigration detention facility in New Jersey when officers began to arrest Newark Mayor Ras Baraka outside the facility \u2014 an arrest that officials quickly dropped.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Prosecutors allege that McIver slammed her forearm into one officer and tried to restrain another by grabbing him as well as using her forearms to push against an officer when she was trying to get back into the facility.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The indictment against McIver does not allege that any officers were injured during the incident.\n    <\/p>\n<div>\n<header>\n<span>\n      Related article\n    <\/span>\n<\/header>\n<section>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Rep. LaMonica McIver exits the grounds at Delaney Hall, an ICE detention facility, in Newark, New Jersey, on May 9, 2025.\" class=\"wp-image-3735\" height=\"144\" src=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/c32330c92132dade2b9ae8f1a70c3bb7.jpg\" width=\"256\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<span>Rep. LaMonica McIver exits the grounds at Delaney Hall, an ICE detention facility, in Newark, New Jersey, on May 9, 2025.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<figcaption>Angelina Katsanis\/AP\/File<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\n<span>Judge denies Rep. LaMonica McIver\u2019s request to dismiss charges around immigration detention center incident<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<div>3  min read<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n            McIver\u2019s attorney, Paul Fishman, said the New Jersey congresswoman was doing her legislative duty of oversight at the facility, which has become a recent hotbed for protests and violent clashes between law enforcement and protestors.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Fishman argued that the judges should \u201clook at the field visit as a whole,\u201d adding that the reason McIver and two other members of congress went outside the facility during Baraka\u2019s arrest \u201cwas oversight\u201d of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The Speech and Debate clause in the Constitution generally protects members of Congress from prosecution for actions that fall within their duties.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cBeing a critic of the administration,\u201d Fishman said, is what the clause was designed to protect. \u201cThey are picking on someone who is a member of Congress\u201d because she disagrees with the administration, Fishman said.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cUse of physical force is never, never covered by the Speech and Debate clause,\u201d attorney for the Justice Department Mark Coyne shot back Wednesday, while acknowledging the case was \u201ccertainly not something I\u2019m taking lightly.\u201d\n    <\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3720\">Judge blocks Trump admin. from getting medical records of minors who received gender identity care at NYC hospitals<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n            The case against McIver is on pause while the Third Circuit considers her appeal of a lower court ruling that rejected her efforts to toss the case on several issues, including congressional protections and vindictive prosecution.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            When asked about Fishman\u2019s effort to have the court consider the issue of whether the case was brought vindictively by the Trump administration, Coyne pushed back.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cI\u2019m still here,\u201d Coyne said, adding that if the administration started to charge a bevy of lawmakers, a hypothetical posed by Judge Thomas Ambro, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, Coyne would do \u201ceverything in my power\u201d to ensure that would not happen.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            On rebuttal, Fishman said the decision to prosecute was not Coyne\u2019s but came from the Justice Department. \u201cThey are not made in Newark,\u201d Fishman said of the decision to prosecute enemies of Trump.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Judge Ambro also questioned if Coyne could point to any other case where a lawmaker was charged with pushing against an officer as they were trying to make their way through a scrum.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cThat doesn\u2019t seem like assault,\u201d Ambro said of one of the charges McIver faces.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Coyne conceded the case was not normal.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Fishman told the judges he was \u201cnot arguing that an assault is a legislative act\u201d but rather that McIver was doing her congressional duties of oversight when immigration agents began to unlawfully arrest Baraka for his presence in the facility.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cIf any member walks into a bar and decks an ICE officer,\u201d Fishman said, that would not be protected.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            McIverhas pleaded not guilty to the charges, which carry a maximum of 17 years in prison.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            During a press conference following the hearing, McIver, several months pregnant, told reporters the case was merely Trump going after his political enemies.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cI have literally the president of the United States and the Department of Justice trying to send me to jail for 17 years \u2014 that\u2019s very frightening,\u201d she said. \u201cThe point of it all is cruelty. The process is the pain for them.\u201d\n    <\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3719\">France reports first Ebola case in patient who returned from humanitarian visit to DRC<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do the legal protections for members of Congress hold even if they\u2019re charged with assaulting a federal officer?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lawyers for Rep. 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