- "The General Assembly of North Carolina shall convene for an extra session on Thursday, March 20, 2008, at 10:00 a.m., in order for the House of Representatives, (i) under Article II, Section 20 of the Constitution of North Carolina, to judge the qualifications of Representative Thomas Wright to continue to serve the 18th House District of the House of Representatives, General Assembly of North Carolina, and/or (ii) within its inherent power to discipline its members, to impose any sanctions against Representative Thomas Wright of the 18th House District."
In response to a couple of questions asked of me too often today and yesterday, I'm validated in having predicted, yes, the Senate will have to convene also, though for no reason other than the state Constitutional requirement that both chambers of our bicameral General Assembly must meet for any Session, among other things.
This one will be brief.
The Senate has no other requirement other than to "convene" and adjourn for a pro forma legislative day. No quorum will be called there and someone from the Wake delegation will no doubt declare "without objection" a recess, or a "standing at ease" while awaiting a Resolution of Adjournment from the House.
The House on the other hand is where the action will take place, and many Senators may come to Raleigh a week from tomorrow just to watch what we hope will be a once-in-lifetime-event.
Sitting more or less as a jury the House has only one question to determine, because, as the courts and now "the Executive Branch" in the form of Michael F. Easley have recognized, the House of Representatives and the Senate individually have sole authority to decide the qualifications of their Members.
That's right. Even courts have ruled Members not actually residing in their districts and otherwise "disqualified" by constitutional requirements are overruled and can be seated anyway if the Body has no objection. Those codicils are of a lower order than a decision by either the House or Senate to seat a Member. It's a legislative prerogative going back at least to the original Commonwealth, not long after the English Parliament decapitated Charles I and was, for a short time, a kind of Republic, in the aftermath of their own Civil War.
Rep. Stam might tell me I'm just guessing, of course. This prerogative of legislatures in the Western World is also a limitation. After someone is disqualified, there remains little the General Assembly can do no matter what the criminal charges against a Member might be. At least in the time between Charles I and "Bonnie Prince" Charles II, the parliament could cut your head off and then display it on a pike perched high upon the city gates, and the like.
In the United States, we can refer such punishments to the courts.
But, on March 20, the House's first Resolution will concern Rules of procedure, since this will be a Special and a unique Extra-Session, not a "reconvening" of any prior Session already adjourned or an early convening of the Short Session set by law to begin in May. Chances are, those Rules will be composed of the Rules decided upon by the Majority in January 2007, other than some hypothetical debate clauses unique to turning the House into a kind of Committee of the Whole.
Among some of hypotheticals to be decided during the first debate over Rules could be whether any Member who has already called for Wright's resignation can fairly judge the Report of the Select Committee picked to hear and report on the evidence against Thomas Wright.
Of course, Members of the House regularly take positions before formal debate.
But branding a person and casting them out from among "brethren" rubs Members of the House the wrong way. In fact the whole fuzzing of the line between Legislature and Court has been an uncomfortable one for everyone involved. As the Select Committee stretched a planned two days of hearings into four largely because of delays and speeches made by Wright's legal representation, it was necessary for everyone to constantly remind each another, and perhaps themselves, of the fact that only one question will be "properly before them."
Is Thomas Wright qualified to represent his district in the House?
The question of his guilt of those criminal charges the State will try in court beginning next month, Thomas Wright's guilt or innocence, is technically of no consequence to the House. They must decide, now ordered by the Governor himself, only his qualifications.
If no further discussion takes place on Rules it will mean the less weightier matters will have properly been decided before the gavel comes down. There may be no discussion at all, and no action other than to approve the Rules offered by the Majority and to quickly move on.
There may not be any debate, for that matter, and no action on the only business on the Calendar other than Rules and Adjournment, before a formal reading of the House Resolution offered by the Select Committee (or at least its title) and then to vote, yea or nay.
Will it then be unanimous? Will Thomas Wright be present?
All this could be made instantly "moot" saving taxpayers $50,000 or so for the one day Extra Session by one simple action by one individual Member that would make the whole matter disappear until trial in a Wake County courtroom.
The resignation of Thomas Wright alone can prevent the first purge of any Member of the N.C. House in more than a century.
