Legislative Autonomy Quotes

A Senate chosen for six years will, in most instances, be an appointment for life, as the influence of such a body over the minds of the people will be coequal to the extensive powers with which they are vested, and they will not only forget, but be forgotten by their constituents.

I think it's difficult for members of Congress to be as independent as they need to be in their voting.

Congressmen take an independent oath to protect and defend the Constitution. They work with the President; they do not work for the President.

For six years the senators are rendered totally and absolutely independent of their States, of whom they ought to be the representatives, without any bond or tie between them: During that time they may join in measures ruinous and destructive to their States, even such as should totally annihilate their State governments, and their States cannot recall them, nor exercise any controul over them.

Is invoking “international opinion” in American law like subjecting legislation enacted by Congress to review by the United Nations?

If we get outside the EU, if we leave the EU system, we will be relieved of a huge amount of unnecessary regulation that is holding this country back. We will be able to set our own priorities, make our own laws and set our own tax policies to suit the needs of this country. We have a huge opportunity also to make people's votes count for more.

The independence of the legislative arm must be respected. I had little taste for forcing Congressional action.

[Then a congressman:] Were I President, I should desire the legislation of the country to rest with Congress, uninfluenced by the executive in its origin or progress.

I've tried to maintain my independence in Congress. Sometimes that has meant opposing my own party leaders.

Parliament alone is sovereign.

The Freedom Caucus, like many of the members, feel like that we have too much of a top-heavy, power-based type of leadership program where the decisions are made exclusively at the top and that members voices are not heard, which means that our constituents' voices are not heard: those that we represent.

I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that.

It is a tenet of representative democracy that MPs are not delegates for their constituents. This means that their decisions and actions are ultimately governed by putting the best interests of all their constituency before all else.

I have been very clear for years - leaving the E.U. means leaving the single market, leaving the customs union, taking back control of our money, border, and laws.

The legislative body possesses with us a great advantage over that of those countries where it may be adjourned or dissolved at the pleasure of the executive authority. It is self-moving and self-dependent. Although it may be convened by the executive, it cannot be adjourned or dissolved by it.

Well it's not a matter for me to say what Llew Smith can or cannot do, he's an elected Member of Parliament.

That's my personal view I would say most in my caucus agree with that but there are some who don't and I've always said that on these kinds of moral issues, people have the right to their own opinions.

It is a breach of order in debate to notice what has been said on the same subject in the other House, or the particular votes or majorities on it there, because the opinion of each house should be left to its own independency, not to be influenced by the proceedings of the other; and the quoting them might beget reflections leading to a misunderstanding between the two Houses.

After Brexit, the E.U. will no longer legislate for us. All laws will be passed by the U.K. parliament and the devolved legislatures. Parliament will be truly sovereign, with the freedom to accept or reject any new rules.

Joint hearings ... destroy the check and balance that we have by having a House and Senate act independently.

It would be improper to put it in the power of any Man to negative a Law passed by the Legislature because it would give him the control of the Legislature

The first thing I would do would be to move forward with an agenda to make sure that we give D.C. the opportunity to elect its own representatives and have some political power on Capitol Hill.

[Legislators] can have no power to transfer their authority of making laws and place it in the hands of others.

Our executive branch does not believe in interfering with what the legislative branch chooses to do. We believe in federalism.

What I was doing was servicing the needs of my constituents and I was not allowed to do that because I did not toe the line on U.S. policy for Israel.