, 1957-04-06


mum of "sixty consecutive calendar days in any calendar
year" (8 Stat. 500 If the Congress had intended at the same
time to forbid the settled practice Of the legislative bodies
under the earlier Organic Act to authorize committees to
function in the interim between sessions, is it not fair to ex-.
pect that such restrictive purpose would also have been expli-
city written into the Revised Organic Act?
Instead of that, what did the Congress do? It abolished
the old municipal councils and provided a single unicameral
Legislature for the whole Of the Virgin Islands. And in Sec.
I6(g) it provided: "The rules Of the Legislative Assembly of
the Virgin Islands existing on the date of approval of this
Act shall continue in force and effect for sessions of the le-
Igislature, except as inconsistent with this Act, until altered,
amended, or repealed by the legislature" (68 Stat. 499-50O
Unless the Revised Organic Act contained some inconsistent
provision, Sec. 6() thus amounted to congressional approval
of the then existing resolution Of the Legislative Assembly
of the Virgin Islands appointing standing committees with
authority to function in the interim between sessions Of the
assembly. The only provision of the Revised Organic Act
claimed by appellant to be thus inconsistent is the one al
ready referred to in Sec. la, restricting the regular sessions
of the legislature to- sixty days. But Sec. 7(a) is only a limit
on the power to legislate; it does not deal. at all with the
power to conduct interim Investigations through appointed
Moreover, if appellants argument were accept
ed, the same result would be reached here even if the Con-
Egress had not limited the regular sessions to sixty days; that
lis, if the legislature, having no time limit on its power to
legislate except of course the expiration of the terms OF office
of the legislators, should decide to shut up its legislative shop
and adjourn sine die, subject only to the possibility of recall
BY the governor in special session, appellant would also ar
que that. since there was no longer any current power to
IIegslate after such adjournment sine die, there could be no
exercise in the interim of the ancillary power to investigate.
we cannot see THAT the sixty-day limit on he
power to legislate has any bearing on the present problem
one way or the other.
In fact, the Congress was not content to leave it to i'm
plication that the legislature had inherent" power to inves-
ltigate as a necessary incident of its power to legislate. 1t
conferred upon the legislature explicitly the power to inves-
Itigate. In Sec. 6(g) the Congress provided: "The legislature
shall be the sole Judge of the elections and qualifications of
its. members, shall have and exercise all the authority and
attributes, inherent in legislative assemblies, and shall have
the power to institute and conduct investigations, issue sub
Ipoena to witnesses and other parties concerned, and admin
lister oaths." (8 Stat. 499) Note that the power. to investigate
is. conferred as a separate and distinct power, not as a power
dependent for its functionng upon a presently existing power
to legislate. The omission of any such limitation is, we think,
quite significant.