Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-5/clause-1-4/powers-and-duties-of-the-houses
Timestamp: 2019-09-22 08:02:22
Document Index: 562649580

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 72', '§ 2895', '§ 2910', '§ 645', '§ 836', '§ 840']

POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE HOUSES | U.S. Constitution Annotated | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute
Each House, in judging of elections under this clause, acts as a judicial tribunal, with like power to compel attendance of witnesses. In the exercise of its discretion, it may issue a warrant for the arrest of a witness to procure his testimony, without previous subpoena, if there is good reason to believe that otherwise such witness would not be forthcoming.400 It may punish perjury committed in testifying before a notary public upon a contested election.401 The power to judge elections extends to an investigation of expenditures made to influence nominations at a primary election.402 Refusal to permit a person presenting credentials in due form to take the oath of office does not oust the jurisdiction of the Senate to inquire into the legality of the election.403 Nor does such refusal unlawfully deprive the state that elected such person of its equal suffrage in the Senate.404
For many years the view prevailed in the House of Representatives that it was necessary for a majority of the members to vote on any proposition submitted to the House in order to satisfy the constitutional requirement for a quorum. It was a common practice for the opposition to break a quorum by refusing to vote. This was changed in 1890, by a ruling made by Speaker Reed and later embodied in Rule XV of the House, that members present in the chamber but not voting would be counted in determining the presence of a quorum.405 The Supreme Court upheld this rule in United States v. Ballin,406 saying that the capacity of the House to transact business is “created by the mere presence of a majority,” and that since the Constitution does not prescribe any method for determining the presence of such majority “it is therefore within the competency of the House to prescribe any method which shall be reasonably certain to ascertain the fact.”407 The rules of the Senate provide for the ascertainment of a quorum only by a roll call,408 but in a few cases it has held that if a quorum is present, a proposition can be determined by the vote of a lesser number of members.409
Congress has authority to make it an offense against the United States for a Member, during his continuance in office, to receive compensation for services before a government department in relation to proceedings in which the United States is interested. Such a statute does not interfere with the legitimate authority of the Senate or House over its own Members.421 In upholding the power of the Senate to investigate charges that some Senators had been speculating in sugar stocks during the consideration of a tariff bill, the Supreme Court asserted that “the right to expel extends to all cases where the offence is such as in the judgment of the Senate is inconsistent with the trust and duty of a Member.”422 It cited with apparent approval the action of the Senate in expelling William Blount in 1797 for attempting to seduce from his duty an American agent among the Indians and for negotiating for services in behalf of the British Government among the Indians—conduct which was not a “statutable offense” and which was not committed in his official character, nor during the session of Congress nor at the seat of government.423
In Powell v. McCormack,424 a suit challenging the exclusion of a Member-elect from the House of Representatives, it was argued that, because the vote to exclude was actually in excess of two-thirds of the Members, it should be treated simply as an expulsion. The Court rejected the argument, noting that House precedents were to the effect that the House had no power to expel for misconduct occurring prior to the Congress in which the expulsion is proposed, as was the case of Mr. Powell’s alleged misconduct. The Court based its rejection on its inability to conclude that, if the Members of the House had been voting to expel, they would still have cast an affirmative vote in excess of two-thirds.425
The object of the clause requiring the keeping of a Journal is “to insure publicity to the proceedings of the legislature, and a correspondent responsibility of the members to their respective constituents.”426 When the Journal of either House is put in evidence for the purpose of determining whether the yeas and nays were ordered, and what the vote was on any particular question, the Journal must be presumed to show the truth, and a statement therein that a quorum was present, though not disclosed by the yeas and nays, is final.427 But when an enrolled bill, which has been signed by the Speaker of the House and by the President of the Senate, in open session receives the approval of the President and is deposited in the Department of State, its authentication as a bill that has passed Congress is complete and unimpeachable, and it is not competent to show from the Journals of either House that an act so authenticated, approved, and deposited, in fact omitted one section actually passed by both Houses of Congress.428
Barry v. United States ex rel. Cunningham, 279 U.S. 597, 616 (1929). [Back to text]
In re Loney, 134 U.S. 372 (1890). [Back to text]
6 CANNON ’ S PRECEDENTS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES §§ 72–74, 180 (1936). Cf. Newberry v. United States, 256 U.S. 232, 258 (1921). [Back to text]
Barry v. United States ex rel. Cunningham, 279 U.S. 597, 614 (1929). [Back to text]
279 U.S. at 615. The existence of this power in both houses of Congress does not prevent a state from conducting a recount of ballots cast in such an election any more than it prevents the initial counting by a state. Roudebush v. Hartke, 405 U.S. 15 (1972). [Back to text]
HINDS ’ PRECEDENTS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES §§ 2895–2905 (1907). [Back to text]
144 U.S. 1 (1892). [Back to text]
144 U.S. at 5–6. [Back to text]
Rule V. [Back to text]
4 HINDS ’ PRECEDENTS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES §§ 2910–2915 (1907); 6 CANNON ’ S PRECEDENTS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES §§ 645, 646 (1936). [Back to text]
Burton v. United States, 202 U.S. 344 (1906). [Back to text]
In re Chapman, 166 U.S. 661 (1897). [Back to text]
166 U.S. at 669–70. See 2 J. STORY, COMMENTARIES ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES § 836 (1833). [Back to text]
395 U.S. at 506–12. [Back to text]
2 J. STORY, COMMENTARIES ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES § 840 (1833), quoted with approval in Field v. Clark, 143 U.S. 649, 670 (1892). [Back to text]
United States v. Ballin, 144 U.S. 1, 4 (1892). [Back to text]
Field v. Clark, 143 U.S. 649 (1892); Flint v. Stone Tracy Co., 220 U.S. 107, 143 (1911). See the dispute in the Court with regard to the application of Field in an origination clause dispute. United States v. Munoz-Flores, 495 U.S. 385, 391 n.4 (1990), and id. at 408 (Justice Scalia concurring in the judgment). A parallel rule holds in the case of a duly authenticated official notice to the Secretary of State that a state legislature has ratified a proposed amendment to the Constitution. Leser v. Garnett, 258 U.S. 130, 137 (1922); see also Coleman v. Miller, 307 U.S. 433 (1939). [Back to text]