Remembering Irvin B. ``Irv'' Nathan
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remember a passionately devoted and skilled public servant, former House General Counsel Irvin B. ``lrv'' Nathan. A fearless champion for the rule of law, he will be missed sharply and remembered fondly. Irv,…
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remember a passionately devoted and skilled public servant, former House General Counsel Irvin B. ``lrv'' Nathan. A fearless champion for the rule of law, he will be missed sharply and remembered fondly.
Irv, who passed away in September, was a great legal mind, a stalwart defender of the history and prerogatives of the United States House of Representatives, and a zealous defender of the congressional oversight function. Irv won key legal precedents on behalf of the House, such as establishing that even the highest-ranking White House officials are legally required to appear for congressional depositions and provide documents when subpoenaed.
Irv Nathan was a true son of Maryland. He was born and raised in Baltimore, where his father, Sol Nathan, served as a procurement officer for the city and his mother, Irene Nathan, worked as a social worker for the state government. He graduated from Johns Hopkins in 1964 and from Columbia Law School in 1967. After graduation, he returned to Maryland to clerk for Judge Simon E. Sobeloff, chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Over the course of his long legal career, Irv also spent time in private practice and academia. He practiced law at the prominent firm of Arnold & Porter, first as an associate and later as the firm's senior litigating partner. He worked as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he taught legal ethics, litigation, and the law of the District of Columbia. He also served as a visiting professor at the University of San Diego and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
But at his core, Irv was a devoted public servant. From 1979 to 1981, Irv served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice, where he was deeply involved in the ABSCAM investigation into corrupt officials at every level of government. From 1993 to 1994, he returned to the Department to serve as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, where he helped to craft legislation, implement international agreements, and mentor hundreds of DOJ attorneys.
In 2007, Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked Irv to serve as General Counsel for the House of Representatives. In that role, working with House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr., Irv fought to secure the testimony of White House Counsel Harriet Miers and other Bush Administration officials. When those officials refused to testify, citing executive privilege and a novel theory of absolute immunity, Irv took the White House to court.
Some years later, describing the case in a chapter he wrote for the Constitution Project's When Congress Comes Calling: A Handbook for Responding to Congressional Investigations, Irv recalled the internal debate. ``Attorneys with long experience in the House General Counsel's office, and with considerable devotion to the prerogatives of the House, strongly recommended against such a suit,'' he remembered. They feared that ``the House was likely to lose the suit and thus the powers of the House would be diminished.'' But Irv believed ``that we had the better of the procedural arguments and a clear winner on the merits, if the courts would reach them. We argued that if we did not sue, the House would appear to be a paper tiger, holding the witnesses in contempt but without any follow up action.'' Irv's argument won the day, the House held the officials in contempt, and a few days later the House Judiciary Committee filed its complaint in federal district court.
That case, Judiciary v. Miers, has been the cornerstone of congressional oversight for nearly twenty years. As lead counsel, Irv won,
for the first time, the right of the House to enforce it subpoenas through civil litigation. Further, he convinced the court to reject the Bush Administration's claim of absolute immunity for senior White House officials. He argued convincingly that executive branch officials must appear when presented with a congressional subpoena--they may assert executive privilege one question at a time, but they may not stonewall congressional committees altogether. The House, as an institution, owes a great deal to Irv's courageous decision to pursue the case, his skill in arguing the case in court, and his commitment to vindicating our constitutional rights, come what may.
In 2011, Mayor Vincent Gray appointed Irv to be the Attorney General for the District of Columbia--the last such appointment before the position became an elected office. In that role, Irv investigated corrupt officials, recovered more than $70 million in unpaid corporate taxes, and fiercely defended home rule for the capital city. He also founded the Ruff Fellowship Program, drawing recent graduates from local law schools into the Office of the Attorney General for a year of legal experience and public service.
Irv accomplished all of this while also lending his time and expertise to a long list of professional associations and charitable causes, including the District of Columbia Board of Professional Responsibility; the District of Columbia Bar Ethics Committee; the American College of Trial Lawyers; the Council for Court Excellence; the Anti-Defamation League of the District of Columbia; the American Jewish Congress; the University of the District of Columbia Law School Foundation; and Tzedek DC, which fights for the legal rights of some of the most vulnerable residents of the District of Columbia.
Irv is survived by his wife, Judith Walter, his sons, Daniel Nathan and Jonathan Nathan, his grandchildren, Benjamin and Zoe Nathan, and his sister, Marilyn Nathan.
At this moment in our history, the need for principled leadership and strategic legal thinking has never been more urgent. We are made better citizens by Irv's example. May his memory be for a blessing to his family, his friends, and his admirers.