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To: JohnBovenmyer
The president's power to convene special congressional sessions has exactly nothing to do with your fantasy of federal law enforcement arresting senators or congressmen.

My best guess is that you're confusing Truman's special sessions with the handful of times senators have been rounded up and returned to the chamber by act of the Senate, not the president
104 posted on 12/21/2018 1:57:19 AM PST by aNYCguy
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To: aNYCguy
>your fantasy of federal law enforcement arresting senators or congressmen

But it was such a lovely fantasy... The Democrats have so many fantasies. Can't I keep my one under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th?

Yes, I may be conflating things. I recalled the President had some constitutional power over Congress which was being overlooked and I recalled dim old memories of tales of Congresscritters (Senate vs. House should be similar) being compelled to return. I also recalled the fairly recent events of WI Rat legislators hiding out in IL and a previous episode of Rats from TX hiding out in OK or visa versa. And I dimly recall cases in which the executive branch provided assistance to Congressmen attempting to return to DC. What I found in the fine print of Article II wasn't precisely what I'd thought I'd find. Perhaps it is the legislative body that has the power to compel its members to return, but if the President can compel them into session the legislative bodies procedures to enable a session should be triggered in some way. But I can't parse Senate/House rules as easily as I can the Constitution. I'm confident John Adams, who IIRC wrote the initial Senate rules, wouldn't have missed such point.

Perhaps there is potential for compulsion in a quorum call and I can have my fantasy less directly, but I don't know the fine print of how that works or how its triggered. If Trump calls the Senate into session and only one shows up could he trigger action to compel the rest of his mates to return? I'd hope it wouldn't have to be called by the body's internal leader as I can conceive of Mitch hiding out in KY.

110 posted on 12/21/2018 6:52:45 AM PST by JohnBovenmyer (Waiting for the tweets to hatch!)
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