parliamentary procedure Parliamentary procedure is the accepted rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings of an assembly or organization. Its object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of interest to the organization and thus to arrive at the sense ...

, a suspension of the rules allows a

deliberative assembly A deliberative assembly is a meeting of members who use parliamentary procedure. Etymology In a speech to the electorate at Bristol in 1774, Edmund Burke described the British Parliament as a "deliberative assembly," and the expression became ...

to set aside its normal rules to do something that it could not do otherwise. However, there are rules that cannot be suspended.

Explanation of use

Rules are essential to the regularity of the proceedings. They protect the

principles of parliamentary procedure Parliamentary procedure is the body of rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings and other operations of clubs, organizations, legislative bodies, and other deliberative assemblies. General principles of parliamentary procedure include rule of ...

—order, the right of individual members and of minorities to be heard, and the right of a majority to carry out its will. For these reasons, members have a right to insist on the observance of the rules. Yet, the assembly may dispense with certain rules. Special rules of order, rules contained in the

parliamentary authority A parliamentary authority is a book of rules for conducting business ( parliamentary procedure) in deliberative assemblies. Several different books have been used by legislative assemblies and by organizations' deliberative bodies. Application to ...

, the standing rules of the assembly, and rules of order contained in the

bylaws A by-law (bye-law, by(e)law, by(e) law), or as it is most commonly known in the United States bylaws, is a set of rules or law established by an organization or community so as to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authorit ...

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these pr ...

may be suspended. In addition, the bylaws may provide for a specific rule to be suspended. Depending on the type of rule being suspended, a

motion In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and m ...

to suspend the rules could be adopted with a

two-thirds vote A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority r ...

. In many cases, suspension of the rules may take place with

unanimous consent In parliamentary procedure, unanimous consent, also known as general consent, or in the case of the parliaments under the Westminster system, leave of the house (or leave of the senate), is a situation in which no member present objects to a prop ...

. Typically, a member will make a request to consider particular business or take a special action not permitted by the rules. The chair will ask if there is any objection; if there is no objection, the rules are suspended.

Rules that cannot be suspended

Rules which embody fundamental principles of parliamentary law or require a ballot vote and rules protecting absentees or a basic right of the individual cannot be suspended, even by unanimous vote. (TSC) Thus, the rules cannot be suspended to allow non-members to vote; to authorize absentee or

cumulative voting Cumulative voting (also accumulation voting, weighted voting or multi-voting) is a multiple-winner method intended to promote more proportional representation than winner-take-all elections such as block voting or first past the post. Cumulativ ...

; to waive the requirement of a

quorum A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly (a body that uses parliamentary procedure, such as a legislature) necessary to conduct the business of that group. According to '' Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'', the ...

; or to waive the requirement for

previous notice In parliamentary procedure, a motion is a formal proposal by a member of a deliberative assembly that the assembly take certain action. Such motions, and the form they take are specified by the deliberate assembly and/or a pre-agreed volume detaili ...

for a bylaws amendment. Moreover, the rules cannot be suspended to take away a particular member's right to attend meetings, make motions, speak in debate, and vote; these can only be curtailed through

disciplinary procedures In a deliberative assembly, disciplinary procedures are used to punish members for violating the rules of the assembly. Codes and rules According to Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised (RONR), discipline could include censure, fine, suspensi ...

. Three of the major parliamentary authorities: '' Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'', ''

The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure ''The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure'' (formerly the ''Sturgis Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure'' by Alice Sturgis) is a book of rules of order. It is the second most popular parliamentary authority in the United States after ...

'', and '' Demeter's Manual'' — all agree that provisions in the bylaws that do not relate to parliamentary procedure may not be suspended. Demeter notes how this plays into the reality of parliamentary situations: Similarly, Mason states: The action is still illegal if it violated a mandatory constitutional provision, since a legislature cannot suspend the constitution.

Gordian knot

One application of the motion to suspend the rules is called the "

Gordian knot The Gordian Knot is an Ancient Greek legend of Phrygian Gordium associated with Alexander the Great who is said to have cut the knot in 333 BC. It is often used as a metaphor for an intractable problem (untying an impossibly tangled knot) sol ...

" motion.TSC, p.86 If confusion has caused the assembly to get so tangled up in a parliamentary snarl that neither the chairman nor the members can unravel it, a member can move to suspend the rules to start fresh. The use of the "Gordian Knot" motion is illustrated in '' The Standard Code'' with this example: "Madam President, in view of the confusion about the parliamentary situation, I believe it would be best if we were to cancel out everything that has been done on this motion and start over from the beginning, permitting the motion to be resubmitted in whatever form the maker wishes. I move that the rules be suspended to permit this." The "Gordian Knot" version of suspension of the rules was introduced by Floyd Riddick, Parliamentarian Emeritus of the United States Senate, at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the

American Institute of Parliamentarians The American Institute of Parliamentarians (AIP) is a not-for-profit educational organization founded in 1958. The objectives of AIP are to promote the use and teaching of parliamentary procedure, as well as the training and certification of parli ...

. '' Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'' does not have such a motion. However, the same effect could be done by having the maker of a main motion request to withdraw it. If the assembly approves this request, all adhering motions to the main motion cease to be before the assembly as well.

US Congress

In the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

of the

US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...

, motions to suspend the rules are in order on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and during the last six days of a session. The Committee on Rules normally releases a list of bills and resolutions to be suspended for the week as were requested by the various committee chairmen. The motion is made on the House floor, which is debatable for 20 minutes each by the proponent and an opponent of the measure. Two-thirds of the Members present and voting must vote in the affirmative for the rules to be suspended and pass, adopt, or agree to the measure. Most measures that are passed in this manner are noncontroversial and are often

bipartisan Bipartisanship, sometimes referred to as nonpartisanship, is a political situation, usually in the context of a two-party system (especially those of the United States and some other western countries), in which opposing political parties find co ...

. In the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and po ...

, the motion to suspend the rules is allowed only with notice or by

References

{{Parliamentary Procedure

Explanation of use

Rules that cannot be suspended

Gordian knot

US Congress

See also

References