PDF of Rule XIX 
 
 1. (a) When a Senator desires to speak, he shall rise and address the Presiding Officer, and shall not proceed until he is recognized, and the Presiding Officer shall recognize the Senator who shall first address him. No Senator shall interrupt another Senator in debate without his consent, and to obtain such consent he shall first address the Presiding Officer, and no Senator shall speak more than twice upon any one question in debate on the same legislative day without leave of the Senate, which shall be determined without debate. 
 
 (b) At the conclusion of the morning hour at the beginning of a new legislative day or after the unfinished business or any pending business has first been laid before the Senate on any calendar day, and until after the duration of three hours of actual session after such business is laid down except as determined to the contrary by unanimous consent or on motion without debate, all debate shall be germane and confined to the specific question then pending before the Senate. 
 
 2. No Senator in debate shall, directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator. 
 
 3. No Senator in debate shall refer offensively to any State of the Union. 
 
 4. If any Senator, in speaking or otherwise, in the opinion of the Presiding Officer transgress the rules of the Senate the Presiding Officer shall, either on his own motion or at the request of any other Senator, call him to order; and when a Senator shall be called to order he shall take his seat, and may not proceed without leave of the Senate, which, if granted, shall be upon motion that he be allowed to proceed in order, which motion shall be determined without debate. Any Senator directed by the Presiding Officer to take his seat, and any Senator requesting the Presiding Officer to require a Senator to take his seat, may appeal from the ruling of the Chair, which appeal shall be open to debate. 
 
 5. If a Senator be called to order for words spoken in debate, upon the demand of the Senator or of any other Senator, the exceptionable words shall be taken down in writing, and read at the table for the information of the Senate. 
 
 6. Whenever confusion arises in the Chamber or the galleries, or demonstrations of approval or disapproval are indulged in by the occupants of the galleries, it shall be the duty of the Chair to enforce order on his own initiative and without any point of order being made by a Senator. 
 
 7. No Senator shall introduce to or bring to the attention of the Senate during its sessions any occupant in the galleries of the Senate. No motion to suspend this rule shall be in order, nor may the Presiding Officer entertain any request to suspend it by unanimous consent. 
 
 8. Former Presidents of the United States shall be entitled to address the Senate upon appropriate notice to the Presiding Officer who shall thereupon make the necessary arrangements. ||||| February 22, 1902 
 
 From its earliest days, the Senate has consistently stressed the importance of decorum in its proceedings. Of the Senate's first 20 rules, 10 dealt with proper behavior. Vice President Thomas Jefferson included in his now-classic Manual of Parliamentary Practice a telling passage that reads as if it had been taken from a schoolroom wall. "No one is to disturb another in his speech by hissing, coughing, spitting, speaking or whispering to another; nor to stand up or interrupt him; nor to pass between the Speaker and the speaking member; nor to go across the [Senate chamber], or to walk up and down it, or to take books or papers from the [clerk's] table, or write there." 
 
 On February 22, 1902, John McLaurin, South Carolina's junior senator, raced into the Senate Chamber and pronounced that state's senior senator, Ben Tillman, guilty of "a willful, malicious, and deliberate lie." Standing nearby, Tillman spun around and punched McLaurin squarely in the jaw. The chamber exploded in pandemonium as members struggled to separate both members of the South Carolina delegation. In a long moment, it was over, but not without stinging bruises both to bystanders and to the Senate's sense of decorum. 
 
 Although Tillman and McLaurin had once been political allies, the relationship had recently cooled. Both were Democrats, but McLaurin had moved closer to the Republicans, who then controlled Congress, the White House, and a lot of South Carolina patronage. When McLaurin changed his position to support Republicans on a controversial treaty, Tillman's rage erupted. With McLaurin away from the chamber, he had charged that his colleague had succumbed to "improper influences." 
 
 On February 28, 1902, the Senate censured both men and added to its rules the provision that survives today as part of Rule XIX: "No senator in debate shall, directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator." ||||| Sen. Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth WarrenSanders and Schumer are right: Ellison for DNC chair Dean: Schumer's endorsement 'kiss of death' for Ellison How the candidates for DNC chair stack up ahead of Saturday's vote MORE (D-Mass.) spoke out after being reprimanded on the Senate floor, saying she was "red-carded" by Senate Republicans over her comments on fellow Sen. Jeff Sessions Jeff SessionsPelosi calls for DOJ probe of Priebus on FBI, Russia Roger Stone: Marijuana crackdown would be 'huge mistake' Ex-Education head: Trump transgender rollback ‘thoughtless, cruel’ MORE (R-Ala.), President Trump’s pick for attorney general. 
 
 In an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Tuesday night following the Senate vote, Warren described the rare move from the Senate GOP. 
 
 "I was speaking about Jeff Sessions and what I believe to be is his complete lack of qualifications to be attorney general of the United States and indeed that he should be disqualified to be attorney general," she said. 
 
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 Warren quoted a 1986 letter from the late Coretta Scott King, a civil rights activist and widow of Martin Luther King Jr., that detailed some of the concerns that eventually helped tank Sessions's nomination for a federal judgeship. 
 
 Coretta Scott King wrote in 1986 that Sessions “had used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens" as a U.S. attorney in Alabama. 
 
 "And now reading that letter out loud, according to [Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell Mitch McConnellThough flawed, complex Medicaid block grants have fighting chance Sanders: 'If you don't have the guts to face your constituents,' you shouldn't be in Congress McConnell: Trump's speech should be 'tweet free' MORE [R-Ky.], impugned Sen. Sessions and therefore I got gaveled and forced to sit down, and I am not allowed to speak on the floor of the Senate," Warren said. 
 
 In an interview with the Boston Globe, Warren said she had “no idea” why McConnell chose to take such rare action “except to make clear that the Republicans do not want the public talking about Jeff Sessions’s record. That’s the only possible reason. Just shut up, don’t talk about him." 
 
 After McConnell shut down Warren's speech, senators rebuked her in a 49-43 party-line vote, preventing her from speaking on the Senate floor for the remainder of debate on Sessions's nomination, expected to last until Wednesday evening. 
 
 “The senator has impugned the motives and conduct of our colleague from Alabama,” McConnell said from the Senate floor. “I call the senator to order under the provisions of Rule 19.” 
 
 In the interview later on Tuesday evening, Warren explained that she would not be allowed to speak "so long as the topic is Sen. Jeff Sessions." 
 
 “I’ve been red-carded on Sen. Sessions. I’m out of the game on the Senate floor. I don’t get to speak at all,” Warren said. 
 
 The Massachusetts senator said she did not think her reading the letter would be so controversial. 
 
 “I hope that everyone reads Coretta Scott King’s letter,” Warren said. “She talks about what it meant when he was a U.S. attorney and the actions he took. She summarized by saying that she did not believe that Jeff Sessions ought to be confirmed to a federal judicial position. … It is eloquent and it reminds us of a time in history that we would like to think is far behind us but reminds us that it is not.” 
 
 Warren later read the letter in its entirety in a Facebook Live video. ||||| Tweet with a location 
 
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– The Senate GOP shut down Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday night as she attempted to quote from old letters penned by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy and the late Coretta Scott King to protest the nomination of Jeff Sessions for attorney general, prompting the #LetLizSpeak and #SilencingElizabethWarren hashtags and leading Warren to tell MSNBC's Rachel Maddow that she'd been "red-carded." What allowed Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to put the kibosh on Warren's speech: Rule 19, an "arcane and seldom used provision" that disallows senators to "impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator," the Washington Post reports. And sure enough, per McConnell, Warren's actions "impugned the motives and conduct of our colleague from Alabama." The origins of Rule 19, however, point to something a tad more confrontational than letter-reading: a fistfight more than a century ago between Benjamin Tillman and John McLaurin, two Democratic senators who had started infighting after McLaurin made overtures to Republicans, enraging his mentor. The men finally came to blows on Feb. 22, 1902, after McLaurin accused Tillman of telling a "willful, malicious, and deliberate lie." About a week after the sparring men were separated, Rule 19 was added to debate decorum rules to prevent future words leading to physicality. Meanwhile, King's full letter can be found at the Washington Post.