# Recalling a U.S. Senator **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 23, 2001, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recalling-a-u-s-senator/66302 "2001-05-23T15:21:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recalling-a-u-s-senator/66302/21 "2001-05-28T01:45:46Z")
Yanking this thread **firmly** back to the OP, it is likely that a state can establish rules whereby a Senator can be recalled, since, after all, a state can establish rules by which a Senator is elected. This isn’t a case of establishing qualifications for being Senator, which is what the _Powell_ and _U. S. Term Limits_ cases dealt with. Whether or not any state has previously so done, I am not aware. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recalling-a-u-s-senator/66302/22 "2001-05-28T05:09:13Z")
I did a search on Google for “state recall member Congress” and the first hit turned up that New Jersey allows for the recall of any of its members of Congress. However, you can’t do unless the person has served one full year in office. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recalling-a-u-s-senator/66302/23 "2001-05-28T06:47:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Asmodean \* > **Sweden requires some people to carry automatics[…]** I’m sorry, this statement is **so** wrong that I can’t resist correcting it, off-topic though it is. Sweden requires members of its Home Guards to keep their weapons at home, as do a number of other countries. However, anyone spotted toting an AG3 down the street would be the subject of some intense police curiosity, at a minimum. The weapons are to stay at home - and at least here in Norway, they must be stored disassembled, with the parts in at least two separate locations, and the ammunition must be stored separately and in a sealed box. The seal is checked annually. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recalling-a-u-s-senator/66302/24 "2001-05-28T08:41:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DSYoungEsq \* > **This isn’t a case of establishing qualifications for being Senator, which is what the _Powell_ and _U. S. Term Limits_ cases dealt with** You’re right. I was confusing **exclusion** from the Senate with **expulsion** from the Senate I found a 1979 [opinion from the Attorney General of Wisconsin](http://www.gjs.net/7968-140.htm) about the validity under the U.S. Constitution of an article of the state constitution that appears to permit the recall of U.S. Senators and Congressmen. He argued that it was valid, but the opinion makes interesting reading no matter which side of the question you fall on. > [@](#): > > Does this power to expel [by a two-thirds vote] so lodged in each > house constitute the only method of removing > a sitting member under our constitutional > system? No definitive answer to this question > has been given by competent authority. > … > Powell v. McCormack, 395 U.S. 486 (1969), is > instructive in determining whether the > expulsion power granted to each house in > Article I, Section 5, Clause 2 should be > viewed as the sole (constitutional) means of > removing a sitting member of Congress. > … > Powell is not directly in point, since it > deals with the exclusion power under > Article I, Section 5, Clause 1, > rather than with the expulsion power > under Article I, Section 5, Clause 2. It seems that there was a movement to recall one of the Senators from Wisconsin in 1979, but I couldn’t find anything more about it on the web. Wisconsin’s two Senators at the time were William Proxmire and Gaylord Anton Nelson, and neither was actually recalled. Nelson failed to win re-election in 1980, though. Unless there’s a challenge to state laws that allow for recall of U.S. Senators and Congressmen, we may never know for sure if such laws are constitutional. As far as I know, there has never been such a case. ---
**Author:** ![LouisXIV](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3e96dc/32.png) [@LouisXIV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisXIV)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recalling-a-u-s-senator/66302/25 "2001-05-28T12:58:09Z")
I wasn’t going to do a review of the laws of all 50 states but my initial thought was that the states probably have the power to create a recall method. Whether any have and what they might be, I don’t know. As for Vermont being the most liberal state, it depends a bit on how you define “liberal.” However, I would agree that gun control has become a liberal position and the right to bear arms is conservative. Vermont may not be liberal on every issue but look at their congressional delegation: a socialist congressman, a liberal Democratic Senator and the most liberal Republican one (make that independent now). They passed the only civil union law for gays and lesbians in the country. Environmentalism is very strong there; the state is pro choice. If you don’t want to say Vermont is the most liberal state in the country, then what other state are you proposing for that title? ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recalling-a-u-s-senator/66302/26 "2001-05-28T13:24:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by flodnak \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Asmodean \* > > Sweden requires some people to carry automatics[…] > > I’m sorry, this statement is so wrong that I can’t resist correcting it, off-topic though it is. Sweden requires members of its Home Guards to keep their weapons at home, as do a number of other countries. However, anyone spotted toting an AG3 down the street would be the subject of some intense police curiosity, at a minimum. The weapons are to stay at home - and at least here in Norway, they must be stored disassembled, with the parts in at least two separate locations, and the ammunition must be stored separately and in a sealed box. The seal is checked annually. \*\* He is probably confusing Sweden with Switzerland, where members of the army, which in theory is everyone, are required to have their weapons at home. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recalling-a-u-s-senator/66302/27 "2001-05-28T15:28:07Z")
Anyone want to show me in the constitution where it says that party membership is a requirement for holding office? Or Where it states that committees have to be run along party lines? If Jeffords wants to switch to the Communist Party, I say let him. If his CONSTITUENTS (the people that he ultimatley answers to, not some party hack in DC) are unhappy, they’ll let him know soon enough. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recalling-a-u-s-senator/66302.md?page=1)