A Simple Proposal

Again, you and I are in complete agreement. Must be the air we breathe.

Congressional Privelage is another way Congress has placed themselves above the law.(Rules 9 and 10 of the House of Representitives)

While in session, no senator or representitive is subject to any civil law enforcement, subpoenas, indictments, or arrest, especially if concerning House business. This is to insure that the people who elected the official is never without representation in congress, and to prevent legal action based on legislating activities.

Some exceptions do apply, murder, kidnapping, etc. But, in general, congressmen are allowed to complete their current session before any legal action can be taken, EXCEPT that action taken by Congress itself.

(I may be slightly in err on the details, but not in general)

Glenn

I understand this to some degree. Well, in two respects.

First, the founders were absolutely nutty about Montesquieu and his picture of the Roman Republic, to the point of holding inaugurations in March and requiring presidents to be the same age required of consuls. And the holders of any office which was assigned lictors were exempt from prosecution until they left office, so obviously the Rome-besotted founders carried that over to our office holders.

Second, it make sense to hold off prosecution on minor charge to prevent two things. One, politically motivated prosecutions to disrupt government and second distractions over trivial matters.

I think I would keep the principle, but in a less restrictive way. While congress is in session, congressmen are immune from prosecution for misdemeanors and civil suits are in abeyance until the session ends. It may commence when congress leaves session.

That should be enough to avoid major distractions yet still inform congressmen they are mere citizens.

Thanks for the comment, and glad we agree on this.

Agree?

A bit more like opposite ends of the same sentence as far as the government and its powers go.



If Left is 100% And Right is
gov't rule Anarchy
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We should be ------------------------|Here


Glenn

That didn't turn out as planned.

I suppose I meant agreed on my general principle, not the specifics of prosecuting congressmen.

I would generally agree they should be treated as private citizens in all aspects, but even private citizens may get extensions on trails for misdemeanors and civil cases, so I would simply make it a general principle that states would agree to postpone prosecution for misdemeanors and civil cases until congress is out of session.

For the president, I suppose prosecution and suits could wait until his term ends.

Of course, ideally, congressmen and presidents, to show they were mere citizens, would voluntarily accept early prosecution on misdemeanors and civil cases, but I doubt that sort of Jacksonian gesture would take place.

My main point is, I agree they should not have anything approaching blanket immunity. And on that we do agree.

What I was trying to impart is that we both have the same views on government, pretty much down the line.

As little as is possible and still have it usable for our purposes.

It is OUR tool, not vice versa.

It does fairly well at destruction and killing, that's why militaries are, and rightly, government entities.

Other than a very few, specific tasks of a contractual, foreign, and enforcement nature, I don't want it.

If the extreme left is 100$ gov't rule,
and the extreme right is anarchy, 0% gov't...

I want to be as close to the far right as I can get without actual anarchy.

Let's start our own nation.

Glenn