Resignation

[J. J.]

At the extreme risk of being named the Parliamentarian of Atlas Senate, I would point out that under many parliamentary authorites, a resignation is not effective unless accepted.  The Constitution and Rules of the Senate are silent on this.

UK practice is that a member of the legislature cannot directly resign his seat, as it a public trust.  The member of parliament applies for and accepts a nominal post, Baliff of the Chiltern Hundreds, from the Crown.  As an MP cannot hold such a post and be an MP, he loses his seat.

Jefferson's Manual is silent on resignations.

Mason's Manual, which is used by the majority of state legistures, while permitting resignations, requires them to be accepted by the body, or "until there has been reasonable time for it to be accepted (Sec. 556, #1, p. 394)."

The traditionally used Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised has similar wording and has similar wording to Mason on p. 279.  It also notes that a resignation need not be accepted, expecially if used to avoid charges (p. 280).

The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure permits officers and members to resign at any time, but notes that it can be withdrawn if not formally accepted and if not yet effective (pp. 255-6).

I should note that these citations are from the most current editions of these parliamentary manuals.

I will note that there is no rule currently covering this in the Senate, but the common law as it relates to parliamentary procedure does give a lot of weight to the Senate accepting the resignation for it to be effective in this circumstance. 

The chair (Vice President Keystone Phil) has yet to state the question on the resignation.  The Senate has yet to vote on it.

[J. J.]

The Precedent of this forum seems to be that one can simply resign a position, rather than requiring it be accepted. I think the process of accepting a resignation is over-formalising the system, which is un-needed.

Precedents, when not incorporated in rules, can be overridden by either a vote in some parliamentary manuals, Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, (p. 17), or by the adoption of a rule, Mason, Section 4, 2., which is similar to the The Standard Code.  The basic rule was expressed by an article which appeared in the journal of the American Institute of Parliamentarians, Parliamentary Journal, July, 1997, "The Role of Custom," which states, "In the absence of any other conflicting rule, custom is binding (p. 95)."  The Senate could choose to, in effect, adopt a rule and decline the nomination, if it so desires.

[J. J.]

We have precedents.  Several members of the Senate have simply resigned in the past, without requiring any formal acceptance of the resignation.

We also have precedents for electing the replacement, which I will follow.

An adopted motion would be enough to overturn such precedent, if the Senate wishes.