What I wonder is how long can they be living outside of their Senate district before they run into residency requirements?
Forever, if desired. You have to reside in the district at the time of the election (and for at least a year prior), but once elected, you are the Legislator chosen by the voters.
How can you expel without a quorum?
Presumably you mean “forever” in the sense of until the end of the term, right? Residency requirements would again apply at the next election.
Sounds like a bill of attainder to me.
Wisconsin Legislature only requires quorum on bills relating to budget & spending.
So they’re going to start tossing out officials that the people of Wisconsin have duly elected. Wow.
Well, I’m not suggesting it, but they have been absent from work for a while. Try leaving at your job for three weeks just because you don’t like what the boss is doing.
The people duly elected them to be in the Senate chamber. I’ve seen far worse excuses for political tricks.
Legislators are chosen by the electorate. If the legislator has not done their job it is the electorate who will fire them in the next election.
Legislators cannot be “fired” midterm. Certainly not by other members of the legislature…they are not the “boss” of each other. It’d be like the one file clerk firing another file clerk because he did not show for work. They cannot do that.
The only ways to get a legislator out mid-term that I am aware of is for the public to initiate a recall vote or for the legislature to impeach a sitting member. I am not sure of the rules or process surrounding impeachment in Wisconsin but I am willing to bet it takes a long time and requires at least a quorum (probably a super-majority) to pull off.
Walker is not their boss. Neither is Senate ML Fitzgerald.
I’ll admit that I’m not familiar with Wisconsin rules, but at least at the federal level, each house can set its own rules, including rules for expulsion of a member. And while it takes a 2/3 vote at the federal level to expel a member, it is 2/3 of those present and as long as a quorum is present, the vote can continue.
And, again, its not a stretch to say that a prolonged, coordinated and deliberate absence which is keeping the legislature from progressing on budget related matters is a matter worthy of expulsion.
No. The people of WI, as represented through a majority of elected Senators, are their boss.
I do not see it as 2/3 of those present but 2/3 of the chamber (all of them…at the Federal level).
It is also a long, drawn out process.
Anyway, without a quorum the point is moot. They definitely cannot expel without a quorum present so in this case it is a non-starter.
I think it is reasonable to suppose if Walker could make this happen then he would. He hasn’t so I am guessing he can’t.
No they haven’t. They’vbe been doing their job the entire time. They haven’t taken a second off.
Art. I, Sec. 5 of the US Constitution provides that a majority of each house is a quorum, which is necessary “to do business.”
It also provides that a two-thirds concurrence is necessary to expel a member.
I don’t see anything that makes this 2/3rds of the entire membership instead of 2/3rd of the members present, but I could be wrong. Expulsion votes have been enormously lopsided, so we don’t seem to have the benefit of a close call to settle the issue.
Not sure how reliable this is so just a data point but all I could find in a quick search:
This.
My state senator is in Illinois doing exactly what I elected him to do.
Legislators leave their jobs for months at a time in order to run for higher office, and nobody gives a shit. If that was a justification, any Wisconsin legislator who runs for national office will be fair game for expulsion.
McCain and Obama were present for something like twelve Senate votes after winning their respective parties’ nominations.
So they can be expelled for “not doing their jobs”, i.e., not being in the chamber debating and voting on proposed legislation to a standard you set? I could buy into that, provided that we hold the filibuster-threatening U.S. Senators to the same standard, and throw them out for failing to engage in honest debate and be voted down when not in the majority.
Or else we can agree that tactics aimed at not allowing a measure youy oppose come to a vote you are likely to lose, is a valid political maneuvering technique.
I’ll take this option.
None of you young whippersnappers remember when Byrd signed arrest warrants for 40-some Republican senators that walked out to deny the Dems a quorum? They sent the Sergeant-at-Arms to arrest Bob Packwood, who was hiding in his office, and physically carried him onto the Senate floor.
Perfectly legitimate response, to a perfectly legitimate tactic.