Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group

The Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) has been a standing body of the U.S. House of Representatives since 1993. Comprising five members of the House leadership (the Speaker, the majority and minority leaders, the majority and minority whips), it directs the activities of the House Office of General Counsel. BLAG can direct the General Counsel to participate in litigation or file an amicus curiae brief in cases involving the interests of the House or BLAG can call for legislation or a House resolution authorizing the General Counsel to represent the House itself.

The House Office of General Counsel evolved from a low-level position that handled routine contracts. In the mid-1970s Speaker Tip O'Neil authorized it to handle constitutional questions, though it remained under the supervision of the House Clerk. The House authorized the Speaker to intervene in Chadha v. INS, and after that lawsuit's resolution in 1983 the five members of the House leadership, without authorization from the House, established the House Bipartisan Leadership Group to represent the interests of the House in litigation, which it did several times as either intervenor or amicus over the next decade.

On January 5, 1993, the Democratic-majority House adopted a rule creating the Office of General Counsel under the control of the Speaker "who shall consult with a Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group which shall include the majority and minority leaderships." Republicans had offered without success an amendment that would have required approval by the entire House for the Office of Counsel to undertake certain kinds of litigation and enhanced BLAG's control of the office.

BLAG has acted in a wide range of cases. In 1997, BLAG filed an amicus brief in Raines v. Byrd, an unsuccessful challenge to the Line Item Veto Act of 1996. During consideration of Dickerson v. United States (2000), BLAG submitted an amicus brief to the Fourth Circuit and to the Supreme Court arguing that judicial review of a statute should not extend to the political considerations underlying its enactment. In 2002, when a group of Democratic congressmen sued the Bush administration over access to census information, BLAG's Republican majority had the Office of House Council oppose them and argue that courts should not interfere in such disputes between the executive and legislative branches. In 2004, BLAG filed an amicus brief in Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow in support of a school district's practice of leading students in the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, including the words "under God." During the criminal proceedings against Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana, following a unanimous vote of its five members, BLAG filed a brief calling for the return of papers seized from Jefferson's offices by the FBI in May 2006.

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