USA > Michigan > Michigan official directory and legislative manual for the years 1901-1902 > Part 16
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60. On the reconsideration of a certain motion, a senator declined to vote on the ground that he was not present when the vote was taken upon which the reconsideration was had. Held, that the motion to reconsider was a constituent part of the first motion, and he could not be required to vote .- Mason's Appeal, S. J. 1844, p. 341.
Every member in the hall, when -the question is stated from the chair, must vote unless excused. It is hard to see, if the reconsideration was properly stated, how the senator could be excused from voting.
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LEGISLATIVE DECISIONS.
61. A paper which is not confined to a discussion of the action objected to, but contains reflections on the house, is not a protest within the meaning of the con- stitution .- Chamberlain's Appeal, H. J. 1849, p. 411.
Webster says a "protest" is a solemn declaration of opinion. Undoubtedly the framers of the constitution, when they so freely granted every member the right of protest of record, intended just that and nothing more.
62. A motion to reconsider the vote by which the sergeant-at-arms was dis- patched after the absentees is in order .- Cartter's Appeal, H. J. 1845, p. 389.
Yes; but he is usually sent only under the operation of a call, and the same purpose is more easily accomplished in our practice by a motion "to dispense with all further proceedings under the call."
63. A motion to reconsider cannot be entertained after the bill has passed out of possession of the house. The proper motion is that the senate be requested to return the bill .- H. J. 1850, p. 210. -
By rule, a reconsideration is in order on the same or next succeeding day. Any member desiring to do so can secure the holding of a bill for these two days by publicly giving notice that he will move to reconsider the vote by which the bill was passed; but if for lack of notice or lapse of time the bill has gone from the possession of the house, then very properly the mnotion should be "that the senate be requested to return."
64. A notice that a motion will be made tomorrow to reconsider a vote was held not to cut off an immediate motion to reconsider .- H. J. 1861, p. 1370.
No; nor does the failure of the motion on the first day prevent the trial of the question again on the morrow, in accordance with the notice. See No. 63.
65. A motion to reconsider in the senate is not in order while the resolution is in possession of the house .- Mason's Appeal, S. J. 1844, p. 223.
Reconsideration is only in order for a limited time. Notice having been given, the bill or resolution must be held until the expiration of the time. See rule 40, and decisions Nos. 63 and 64.
66. A motion to reconsider a vote by which an appeal was tabled was held out of order .- Eldredge's Appeal, S. J. 1848, p. 405.
Correctly so.
67. A motion to reconsider a vote by which the senate refused to reconsider another vote was held out of order .- Fenton's Appeal, S. J. 1846, p. 502.
Correctly so. In the senate, reconsideration is in order three several days. With proper notice the question may be tried once only each day. Rule 40.
68. A motion to reconsider is not in order after the bill has been sent in the house.
See comments on Nos. 63 and 65.
69. A resolution to allow the respondent in proceedings on a breach of privi- lege to withdraw his answers to the interrogatories propounded to him by the senate was held out of order, as the answer would form part of the journal and could not be withdrawn .- Mason's Appeal, S. J. 1845, p. 437.
Courts allow prisoners to change their pleas. Was it not competent for the senate, by resolution, to do the same?
70. The official journal cannot be altered so as to record a member's vote on a question three days after the determination of that question .- H. J. 1862, p. 30.
It cannot. The only possible relief for a member in such a dilemma is a ques- tion of privilege.
71. A concurrent resolution containing matter not included in the governor's
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THE LEGISLATURE.
message to an extra session, was held in order and properly before the house, because the riglit of the house to act upon concurrent resolutions does not depend upon the recommendation of the governor; and the resolution having been received and acted upon by the house, the privilege of raising the point of order had been waived .- H. J. 1862, p. 30.
A technical evasion of both the points named.
72. A member having offered for introduction a joint resolution under the order of "Motions and resolutions," after the expiration of the fifty days' limit for the introduction of bills, the speaker ruled the same out of order, on the ground that joint resolutions are considered the same as bills, by both the con- stitution and the rules of the house, and the receipt of either at that time would be the receipt of new business, and would be in conflict with the constitution .- Thorp's Appeal, H. J. 1879, p. 1036.
See comments on Nos. 8, 34 and 38.
73. The legislature of 1839 met in joint convention before the senate had elected a president pro tempore. The speaker of the house called the convention to order, and continued to preside. On a motion to adjourn a tie vote resulted in each house. The speaker, who had voted as speaker with the representatives, on the announcement of the vote, decided, as presiding o ficer, that the presi- dent of the senate should give the casting vote. Whereupon the president arose and gave the casting vote in the affirmative, and the convention adjourned .- Hawkin's Appeal, H. J. 1839, p. 175.
This is a most extraordinary case, and it may well claim our attention. 1. How could it happen that the speaker should preside in joint convention ? 2. The lieutenant governor being present, why did he not preside ? 3. When the secretary of the senate and the clerk of the house had each announced an equal and like number of votes, for and against the motion, why did not the chairman declare the motion lost, it not having received a majority of all the votes cast, instead of hunting up an outside party to vote, whose name was not upon either roll call, and whose name nobody was authorized to call ? It may be that these three questions could have been answered more easily under the constitution of 1835 and the rules of 1839 than now, for clearly, under our present constitution and rules, it is the duty of the senate to furnish a presiding officer for joint con- ventions (rule 4 for joint conventions) (a). If the lieutenant governor is absent then the president pro tempore presides; and if, as was the situation in this case, the senate has no president pro tempore one should be elected before pro- ceeding to joint convention, as it is an office established by the constitution (Sec. 13, Art. V), and a wise provision to insure the proper discharge of the duties of the office of lieutenant governor and governor, to each of which it may in turn succeed. Then as to the propriety of the lieutenant governor's voting when he was not acting chairman, a careful reading of Sec. 14, Art. V, of the constitution, leads to the conclusion that, while he is authorized to debate in committee of the whole, he has no place in the senate except in the chair. Authority to decide a tie vote tested anywhere except in the chairman is too unreasonable a propo- sition to consider. The intent is clear that, if the lieutenant governor is present in the senate (or joint convention) and acts at all, he must act as presiding officer. If he substitute (rule 5), or allow the senate to substitute, the substitu- tion is complete. The constitution says " he shall be president of the senate." But in this case, whether right or wrong, the speaker did preside. Clearly he had no greater power than would have had a president pro tempore of the senate acting in the same capacity. Now, rule 4 for joint conventions defines in precise words: "In case of a tie, the question shall be declared lost." Thus it is hard to see where there was any occasion or opportunity for the action had, or the question raised.
(a) The "rules of the senate and house of representatives in joint convention " were not adopted until nearly three months after the joint convention here mentioned. They appear first in the Manual of 1840.
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LEGISLATIVE DECISIONS.
74. A joint resolution reporting an amendment to the constitution by adding a section to stand as section 16 of article XVIII, having been put upon its pas- sage, a substitute was offered for the whole joint resolution, to which substitute two amendments were made. A motion was then made to amend the substitute for the joint resolution by inserting in lieu of the proposed section 16 another section 16. Held, that the latter amendment was not in order, as it was a substi- tute for a substitute to a proposition pending before the house, which substitute had been amended by the house, and the effect of the proposed. substitute would be to entirely change the character of the one which has been partially agreed to by the house in its present form .- H. J. 1870, p. 132.
A substitute to a pending substitute is never in order. See No. 3.
75. A majority of the committee on elections having recommended the adoption of a resolution to postpone indefinitely the further consideration of the eligibility of certain members to hold their seats, and the minority having sub- mitted a contrary report, a motion was made to adopt the resolution reported by the majority. A motion to amend by adopting the resolution reported by the minority was held out of order "on the ground that the majority resolution was simply a motion to indefinitely postpone, which was not susceptible to amendment, and must be decided without debate."
The motion to indefinitely postpone is one of the privileged motions fre- quently used to prevent debate, and bring on the final issue. In this sense it is in part another form of the previous question, and was correctly held as not amendable.
76. A motion to lay on the table and print, having been made, held, that the question of printing may be debated .- H. J. 1851, pp. 433-4.
This was a motion of easy virtue, not consistent with good parliamentary prac- tice. "The table " is a place of rest. "To print " is a condition of activity, indi- cating progress. The two cannot be made to harmonize; but if such a combined motion were entertained, there can be no question that it was rightfully held to be debatable. It would have been much better to have divided the motion. See Nos. 57, 58 and 59 .-
77. When a bill originating in one house is amended in the other, the concur- rence in that amendment is equivalent to the passage of the bill and requires a vote of a majority of the members elect. During the extra session of 1851, a contrary decision was made by the house on an appeal. The house passed a bill and the senate adopted a substitute therefor. The vote on the adoption of the senate substitute by the house stood thirty yeas to twenty-six nays. The speaker pro tem. decided the substitute not concurred in, a majority of all the mem- bers' elect not having voted therefor. An appeal was taken and the decision of the speaker pro tem. was not sustained by twenty-two yeas to twenty-seven nays. -Church's Appeal, H. J. 1851 ( Ex. Session), pp. 68-76. The bill was ordered enrolled by the house and sent to the governor, and was returned to the house by Gov. Barry upon a statement of the facts .- Id. pp. 90, 96; also House Docu- ment No. 1, Ex. Sess. 1851.
Our constitution requires an affirmative vote of a majority of all the members elect to pass any bill or joint resolution. Certainly a substitute for a bill, or an amendment to a bill, would require a like number, and no less would suffice, as action upon such substitute or amendment from the other house, if decided affirmatively, would be the last vote upon the bill, i. e., the passage of the bill. Such vote upon concurrence is always taken by veas and nays, and entered at length upon the journal, the same as the original vote by which the bill passed, because if less than a majority of all the members elect voted affirmatively upon the amendment, then the same is not adopted and there is a disagreement between the two houscs. See No. 14.
78. A bill was pending in the house to declare a certain railroad aid grant of lands forfeited by one corporation and to confer the same upou another by con- firming the action of the state board of control in the premises. Held, by the speaker, that a vote of two-thirds of all the members elect was requisite to the passage of the bill under section 45, Art. IV, of the constitution .- Mercer's Appeal, HI. J. 1881, p. 1563.
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THE LEGISLATURE.
If the bill conveyed no rights of the state, i. e., public property, to the railroad corporation seeking its passage, then it was worthless and needless, but if on the contrary it did convey public property, then undoubtedly a two-thirds vote was necessary. The theory that the state simply transfers from one corporation to another something it did not and could not have, was hardly logical.
79. One of the six bills prepared by the tax commission of 1881, and submitted to the house by the governor in his message, being upon the order of third reading, Mr. Earle raised a point of order against the house at this time taking any action as to the bill in question, his objection being that it had never been properly introduced into the house; that neither a member nor a committee of either house of the legislature had presented the bill; that by the constitution of this state and the rules of the house, a definite method was provided for the introduction of bills; that that method had been entirely ignored, consequently all future action upon the bill would be entirely unauthorized, as it had no legal standing in the house. Held, that under the law creating the tax commission the bill, with several others, came from the governor as the work of such com- mission ; that the bill entered the house, with others, by special message opening this session; that the objection raised might be a question for the consideration of the house, but it was not an objection which could be sustained at this time by the presiding officer .- Earle's Appeal, H. J. 1882 ( Ex. Session).
A commission to prepare bills for legislative action was a new departure for Michigan, but it was no hasty act. For more than ten years had the conviction been growing that the tax system could not be properly revised by legislative action alone. Members single handed, committees of either house, and joint committees for five successive sessions had expended their wisdom upon it with- out result. The knotty question was unsolved. The legislature of 1881, by regu- lar enaetment, authorized such a commission, they prepared their work, the governor presented it at an extra session convened especially to consider it, and at the last stage of the whole proceedings-the final vote-the question of legal- ity came rather late. The presentation of the bill was authorized by the joint action of both houses by law. It is a fact worthy of remembrance, however, that the supreme court set all these acts of the tax commission aside, principally on the ground that an independent commission to assist the legislature was unjusti- fiable interference.
80. A motion "that the senate do now adjourn" was pending when a motion was made " that when the senate adjourn today it stand adjourned until tomor- row at 10 o'clock." The president ruled the latter motion out of order. An appeal was taken, and the ruling of the president sustained .- S. J. 1885, p. 796.
No principle of parliamentary law has been more clearly defined than that a motion to adjourn being made it must be disposed of before any other business is in order; but within the last few years (in congress more particularly) a prac- tice has grown up of permitting a motion intended to fix the time to which to adjourn, while a motion to adjourn is pending, or even any time before adjourn- ment is announced by the chair, on the ground that it may be of the utmost im- portance to set a new time for reconvening before adjournment. Now as the question of time in such a motion would be amendable and debatable, I doubt the propriety of such a course, except by unanimous consent. When all are agreed parliamentary law is of no use.
81. The senate had voted to place a certain bill "on its immediate passage." The president refused to entertain several motions offered, ruling that nothing was in order but the reading and consideration of the bill in question. Appeal was made but the president refused to entertain it .- S. J. 1885, p. 1297.
It is no doubt very annoying to a presiding. officer to entertain dilatory or filibustering motions, but on the other hand parliamentary law is designed, and must be used to enforce the rights of minorities; majorities can take care of themselves. There are very few instances where a chairman could properly refuse to entertain an appeal from his ruling.
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LEGISLATIVE DECISIONS.
82. A certain bill authorizing the board of control of state swamp lands to use not to exceed a given number of acres of swamp lands for a certain improve- ment received 55 votes, and was declared passed. An appeal was taken from the ruling which declared the bill passed on less than two-thirds affirmative vote of all the members elect, under Sec. 45, of Art. IV of the constitution. The ruling of the speaker pro tem. was sustained .- H. J. 1885, pp. 1320-2.
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Undoubtedly the ruling was in accordance with the practice of twenty years or more, upon that class of bills; and yet bills making direct appropriations without the intervention of the board of control have been held to require a two-thirds affirmative vote.
83. A motion was made to discharge the committee of the whole from the further consideration of a bill, and claimed carried on a registered vote of 47 yeas to 43 nays. The question was raised, that to discharge the committee of the whole was to divert a bill from the regular course laid down by the rules, and was therefore a suspension of the rules and as such required a two-thirds vote. The speaker ruled that a majority vote was sufficient. An appeal was taken and the ruling of the speaker was sustained .- H. J. 1885, pp. 1739-40.
The "general order" or file of the committee of the whole is the general wait- ing place for all business. The rule especially contemplates that the committee may take up the several items for consideration at its pleasure. The committee has no authority except such as it derives from the house; certainly then, the house itself may do what it can authorize the committee to do. The object of the general order file is to furnish a place to store up bills until they are wanted, and they are wanted whenever a working majority of the house or committee of the whole desires to act upon them.
84. A bill passed both houses and was sent to the governor for his approval in regular order; shortly after which the friends of the measure discovered that the bill contained a mistake, which they, desiring to correct, sent a respectful mes- sage to the governor, asking the return of the bill. Meantime the governor had placed his signature to the bill and left the city. Upon receipt of the request the private secretary of the governor thought that courtesy demanded that he should return the bill as requested, which he did. When it came up under re- consideration the governor's signature was discovered, and the question raised that it was no longer a bill but an act; that having received the governor's signa- ture it could not be reconsidered. there was no dispute as to the facts; all it lacked of being an act was the mere deposit in the office of the secretary of state, and a formal message of approval, which of course the governor was ready to make, because he had approved the bill itself .- H. J. 1885, pp. 1253-4.
A bad practice has grown up of requesting the return of bills from the gov- ernor for the purpose of amendment, one which has no standing beyond courtesy, and one which should seldom be indulged in, as it is surrounded with many difficulties, only one of which the case in point illustrates. This case is entirely out of the reach of parliamentary law or practice. The whole trouble was occa- sioned by too much courtesy on the part of the governor's secretary; he should have replied by message that the bill had been signed.
85. The bill relative to the manufacture of oleomargarine, being on its final passage, was declared passed on 55 affirmative votes. The question was raised that, as certain provisions of the biil forced the sale of property to the state at an appraisal, it therefore required a two-thirds vote. The speaker ruled other- wise and an appeal was taken. The ruling was sustained .- H. J. 1885, pp. 1715-6.
This bill is very unusual in its provisions, in that it was an effort to do some- thing that could not be done even by a two-thirds majority vote, and the courts so held. The legislature cannot do everything.
86. A joint resolution extending the time for the completion of a railroad, and thereby continuing a land grant, was declared passed on a vote of 62 yeas. The question was raised that this was a direct vote of public property to private use, and that the resolution therefore required 67 votes under the constitution, Art. IV, Sec. 45. The speaker ruled a majority sufficient; an appeal was taken and the ruling sustained .- H. J. 1885, pp. 1377-8.
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THE LEGISLATURE.
There are some points of difference between the questions involved here and in No. 78; but substantially the same question is pending : will the state grant lands to railroads? In that case 67 affirmative were required.
87. A protest was offered in due form for publication. A motion was made that the protest be received but not published in the journal of proceedings. The president of the senate ruled the motion out of order because of Sec. 14 of Art. IV of the constitution, which particularly gives any member of either house the ' right of protest and of having the saine entered in the journal. An appeal was taken and the ruling sustained. Edward's Appeal, S. J. 1887, p. 1422.
The motion was faulty for two reasons. 1. It was not in the affirmative form. It was a motion not to publish. Such motions are misleading and not in accord with parliamentary law. 2. It was in direct conflict with a constitutional privilege.
88. A member of the senate arose to a "question of privilege," stating that lie wished to introduce a resolution calling for the investigation of a certain state institution. The chair ruled that to introduce such a resolution was not a "question of privilege," and that consequently the resolution was not in order. An appeal was taken and the ruling sustained .- Babcock's Appeal, S. J. 1887, pp. 1432-3.
A "question of privilege" relates to something offensively personal to the member raising it, and would not apply to a resolution to investigate charges against a state institution. It would be a "breach of privilege." to obtain the floor for business not in order under any such pretense.
89. The senate sent a request to the house for the return of a concurrent reso- lution passed some days before relative to the April adjournment. Motion was inade to grant the request. The speaker ruled both the request and the motion out of order, as they related to a matter which had been concluded some days before, and all action relating thereto being fully completed, it was not compe- tent for the house to accede to the request. An appeal was taken and the ruling sustained .- Oviatt's Appeal, S. J. 1887, p. 1110.
As the resolution was to fix the time to which the legislature should stand adjourned, when it did adjourn on a given day still in the future, it is hard to see why ordinary courtesy between the two houses would not have entertained the motion to grant the request. Strictly a request is only a petition, but the right to petition and to have our requests duly considered is supposed to be a staple of American pride.
90. The question was raised as to whether a bill affecting chartered rights acquired prior to the constitution of 1850, having passed the house by more than a two-thirds majority vote, should not have been declared by the speaker as having received the vote of two-thirds of all the members elect. Held, that not- withstanding the bill did receive the requisite two-thirds majority, it should have been so declared .- Lakey's Appeal, H. J. 1887, p. 862.
The declaration is a part of the vote, yet it is questionable if the courts would invalidate such an act because it did not receive votes enough, when by the yeas recorded in the journal more than the necessary two-thirds voted for its passage.
91. A bill having passed both houses in due form, was returned by the governor, without his signature, to the house in which it originated. The vote by which the bill was passed was then reconsidered in constitutional form, and the ques- tion then recurred: Shall the bill pass, the objection of the governor notwith- standing? The bill failed to pass, not receiving the necessary votes of two- thirds of all the members elect. A motion was then made to reconsider the vote by which the bill failed to pass, when the point of order was raised that a reconsideration was not in order at this stage of the bill's history-that the con- stitution, in providing for one reconsideration and no more, presented a bar to all further action. Held, that the point of order was well taken .- Rumsey's Appeal, H. J. 1887, pp. 2266-7.
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