Title: First Principle of Parliamentary Procedure
Original CoS Document (slug): first-principle-of-parliamentary-procedure
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Created: 2019-01-10 19:16:56
Updated: 2019-01-30 19:00:04
Published: 2019-01-09 00:00:00
Converted: 2025-04-14T21:02:03.879457187
I wanted to make sure my legislature was not running away, so I did some research on parliamentary procedures. It didn't take long.
Do you know the first principle of parliamentary procedure?
“The group must be so constituted and endowed that it has the power and authority that it purports to exercise. A purported action must be within the power of the organization or the vote is ineffective.” -Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedures. Sec 43-1
Therefore conventions, or meetings, of the states cannot run away as some contend, or any vote that is not within the authority of the convention is ineffective or void.
Remember parliamentary procedures have been under development for centuries, and in the United States there is sufficient legal case history to support the first principle.
Every motion for a proposal that exceeds the scope of an Article V amendments convention is “out of order,” so the group's vote is not “ineffective.”
The fear about a runaway convention is “overruled” by history, the law, and common sense.