With predictions of divided government, the country faces an oversight storm 

After the midterms this fall, there is a distinct possibility of another episode of divided government in the U.S., with a Democratic Congress facing off against a Republican executive branch. The oversight process that will follow involving its need for documents and testimony is required, by law and tradition, to be characterized by “voluntary accommodation” and a “principled effort to acknowledge, and if possible to meet, the legitimate needs of the other branch.” 

Good luck with that.  

So, in this time of hyperpartisanship, which is also characterized by profound disagreements about the extent of executive power, it seems likely that oversight efforts will necessitate actions by the House to enforce its subpoenas. The avenues available are limited, cumbersome and unlikely to be successful, and the clash between Congress and the executive runs the risk of spiraling into a full-blown constitutional crisis if lawmakers are essentially stymied from conducting oversight.

The first and most obvious enforcement method for the House is to resort to the courts, where both criminal and civil avenues are available. With divided government, criminal contempt for failure to comply with a congressional subpoena is completely unavailable: prosecution decisions are entirely in the hands of the attorney general, who is unlikely to pursue members of his........

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