Breach of the peace be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective houses and in going to and returning from the same and for any speech or debate in either house they shall not be questioned in any other place no senator or representative shall
During the time for which he was elected be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the united states which shall have been created or the emoluments aware of shall have been increased during such time and no person holding any office under the united states shall be a member of either house
During his continuance in office this section protects legislators at the federal level from being detained by police in order to prevent them from voting so that law enforcement can’t be used as a political weapon to influence legislation or the law making process it also protects legislators from being prosecuted for things they say
During an address to congress the second clause aims to protect the integrity of congress by forbidding members from serving in other government positions while in office or from being bribed with appointments to civil offices created specifically for that purpose as for the ability of congress to set its own salaries
That was controversial at the time leading to the proposal of the 27th amendment which was not actually ratified until 1992. the section remains relevant in that it continues to protect congress from prosecution and intimidation by other branches of government and it limits the ability of legislators to vote
Themselves new benefits and it also guards against corruption by doing that the importance of the emoluments clause of article 1 section 6 is to make sure that members of congress aren’t creating special offices or pumping up the salaries of those offices in an effort to then occupy those offices thereby enriching themselves and
Corrupting the process the emoluments clause has occasionally been sidestepped through a procedure known as the saxby fix in which legislation is passed to lower the salary of cabinet position in order to render a particular member of congress eligible for appointment before that member’s term in office is
Complete this was most recently used to allow then senator hillary clinton to serve as secretary of state under the obama administration before her term as a u.s senator was finished the 27th amendment protects the u.s government against the appearance of impropriety or actual impropriety associated with members of congress
Voting to increase their pay and having that take effect immediately it says that it’ll have a delayed effect anytime congress enacts legislation to increase their pay it can’t take effect immediately it can’t take effect until the next congressional election the speech and debate clause is important because it establishes a rule
That says you’re not going to mess with members of congress you’re not going to allow them to be stopped or harassed even by law enforcement as they’re going to and coming from their legislative debates in our nation’s capital this was important because they wanted to make sure that state authorities
Police and other officials it didn’t interfere with debate for political or other reasons they wanted to make sure that congress could operate as an independent branch and as the branch that would be making the laws notably the speech and debate clause doesn’t provide total blanket immunity for members of congress for things that
They say on the senate floor or the house floor rather it says that they shall not be questioned in any other place this references back to the provisions in article 1 section 5 indicating that each house of congress may adopt rules and may punish members for disorderly
Behavior and with a vote of two-thirds expel any member so if a member goes to the house floor or to the senate floor and defames someone discloses classified information or otherwise causes harm in violation of the rules of the house who are in the senate there can and will be accountability the
Point of the speech and debate clause is to make clear that that accountability lies within the respective houses of congress and not with another jurisdiction senator mike revell tested the limits of the speech and debate clause by publishing 4 000 words of the pentagon papers detailing u.s military involvement in vietnam in the
Congressional record in gravel versus united states in 1972 the supreme court affirmed that the senator was protected from being prosecuted for revealing this information information distribution of which would otherwise have been a criminal offense his aides were also protected by the same privilege we haven’t seen excessive abuses of the speech and
Debate clause to my knowledge there have been relatively few instances in which members of congress have engaged in criminal activity and gotten away with it simply by saying well i was doing this while going to or returning from votes in washington d.c it’s temporarily limited it’s limited in time and place it’s
Limited to when you’re going to or returning from votes thank you for joining us for another episode of the constitution line by line please join us next time You
