[Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and the Rules of the House of Representatives, 105th Congress] [105th Congress] [House Document 104-272] [Jeffersons Manual of ParliamentaryPractice] [Pages 183-187] [From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov] sec. xviii.--orders of the house. [[Page 184]]
Sec. 380. Keeping of the doors of the House. | Of right, the door of the House ought not to be shut, but to be kept by porters, or Sergeants-at-Arms, assigned for that purpose. Mod ten. Parl., 23. |
Sec. 381. Right of the Member to demand execution of the subsisting order. | The only case where a Member has a right to insist on anything, is where he calls for the execution of a subsisting order of the House. Here there having been already a resolution, any person has a right to insist that the Speaker, or any other whose duty it is, shall carry it into execution; and no debate or delay can be had on it. |
Sec. 383. Parliamentary law as to proceeding with orders of the day. | But where an order is made that any particular matter be taken up on a particular day, there a question is to be put, when it is called for, whether the House will now proceed to that matter? Where orders of the day are on important or interesting matter, they ought not to be proceeded |
Sec. 384. Orders of the day now obsolete. | Orders of the day may be discharged at any time, and a new one made for a different day, 3 Grey, 48, 313. |
Sec. 385. Business at the end of a session. | When a session is drawing to a close and the important bills are all brought in, the House, in order to prevent interruption by further unimportant bills, sometimes comes to a resolution that no new bill be brought in, except it be sent from the other House. 3 Grey, 156. |
Sec. 386. Effect of end of the session on existing orders, especially as to imprisonment. | All orders of the House determine with the session; and one taken under such an order may, after the session is ended, be discharged on a habeas corpus. Raym., 120; Jacob's L. D. by Ruffhead; Parliament, 1 Lev., 165, Pitchara's case. |
Sec. 387. Jefferson's views as to the constitutional power to make rules. | Where the Constitution authorizes each House to determine the rules of its proceedings it must mean in those cases (legislative, executive, or judiciary) submitted to them by the Constitution, or in something relating to these, and necessary toward their execution. But orders and resolutions are sometimes entered in the journals having no relation to these, such as acceptances of invitations to attend orations, to take part in procession, etc. These must be understood to be merely conventional among those who are willing to participate in the ceremony, and are therefore, perhaps, improperly placed among the records of the House. |
Sec. 388. The House's construction of its power to adopt rules. | The House of Representatives has frequently examined its constitutional power to make rules, and this power has also been discussed by the Supreme Court (V, 6755). It has been settled that Congress may not by law interfere with the constitutional right of a future House to make its own rules (I, 82; V, 6765, 6766), or to determine for itself the order of proceedings in effecting its organization (I, 242-245; V, 6765, 6766). It has also been determined, after long discussion and trial by practice, that one House may not continue its rules in force to and over its successor (I, 187, 210; V, 6002, 6743-6747; Jan. 22, 1971, p. 132). A law passed by the existing Congress has been recognized as of binding force in matters of procedure (II, 1341; V, 6767, 6768); but when a law passed by a preceding Congress presumes to lay down a rule of procedure the House has been inclined to doubt its binding force (V, 6766), and in one case the Chair denied the authority of such a law that conflicted with a rule of the House |