Unseated Members Of The United States Congress
Throughout the history of the United States Congress there have been times when members of either chamber have refused to seat new members. Article I, Section 5 of the United States Constitution states that, "Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties as each House may provide." This means that members of the House of Representatives and of the Senate can refuse to recognize the election or appointment of a new representative or senator. They can bar the individual outright or refer the matter to a committee for inquiry. Powell v. McCormack (1969) clarified the issue of the scope of powers of the Congress to refuse to seat an elected member. The Federal Contested Elections Act of 1969 currently lays out the procedures by which each House determines contested elections.
Read more about Unseated Members Of The United States Congress: Unseated Members of Congress, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words members, united, states and/or congress:
“The English people believes itself to be free; it is gravely mistaken; it is free only during election of members of parliament; as soon as the members are elected, the people is enslaved; it is nothing. In the brief moment of its freedom, the English people makes such a use of that freedom that it deserves to lose it.”
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778)
“... it is probable that in a fit of generosity the men of the United States would have enfranchised its women en masse; and the government now staggering under the ballots of ignorant, irresponsible men, must have gone down under the additional burden of the votes which would have been thrown upon it, by millions of ignorant, irresponsible women.”
—Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815–1884)
“Canadians look down on the United States and consider it Hell. They are right to do so. Canada is to the United States what, in Dante’s scheme, Limbo is to Hell.”
—Irving Layton (b. 1912)
“Any officer fit for duty who at this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer for a seat in Congress ought to be scalped.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)