On C-SPAN Radio’ s historic Supreme Court Oral Argument this week: On November 7, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the oral argument in “M.B.Z v. Clinton”—a case that tests the president’s foreign policy powers. This Saturday, on C-SPAN Radio’s historic Supreme Court oral argument: A case cited in “M.B.V v. Clinton.” From 1981: “Dames and Moore, Petitioner v. Treasury secretary Donald Regan and others, Respondents”.
In November, 1979, in reaction to the seizure of the U.S. Embassy and American citizens in Iran, President Carter invoked the international Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and froze Iranian assets in the United States. In 1981, under the direction of President Reagan, Treasury Secretary Donald Regan agreed with Iran to terminate legal proceedings in U.S. courts involving claims by U.S. nationals against Iran----to nullify attachments against Iranian property entered by U.S. courts to secure any judgments against Iran----and to transfer such claims from U.S. courts to a newly created arbitration tribunal. These agreements were implemented by executive orders. Dames & Moore, an engineering firm, tried to recover over $3 million owed to it by the Iranian government and claimed the executive orders were beyond the scope of presidential power.
Listen to the courtroom recording of the oral argument in the 1981 case "Dames & Moore v. Regan”--Saturday, October 22 at 6 pm ET on C-SPAN Radio: 90.1 FM in the Washington, DC area, online at Cspanradio.org and nationwide on XM Satellite Radio, channel 119. The audio and information in this program are courtesy of the Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law at: http://www.oyez.org/