I think the 1997 precedent ⬇️ (ignore the highlighting) might be somewhat of an obstacle to anything that would involve postponing the election of a speaker.
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One question is whether electing speaker pro tem would be permissible in that context. Another is whether failure to elect speaker by 12:59 pm (ish) on Jan 6 would encourage a majority to vote to set new precedent on electing spkr. We might be in realm of what’s technically vs politically possible
Furthermore, 3 USC 15 mandates that the electoral votes be counted on January 6, and if there’s no speaker, it seems to me that the best way to give maximum effect to both 3 USC 15 and 2 USC 25 is to have a non-speaker member swear in all the members.
People don’t seem too interested in *why* exactly it’s necessary to elect a Speaker before doing anything else, other than that it’s tradition. The closest you get is this business about swearing in Members, which they think of as passing down some magical essence from the Speaker to the membership.
I think @ringwiss.bsky.social has documented some of the various resolutions that were considered by the House during the 19th century Speaker fights that went on for weeks. There’s plenty of wiggle room in general parliamentary law allowing organizational resolutions of that kind to be considered.
Selecting a temporary presiding officer to facilitate some urgent business seems like a no-brainer and I don’t think Members should listen to anyone who says “That’s not allowed, you have to be paralyzed.”
Chad tomorrow: “House precedents clearly state that if a Speaker cannot be elected, then *only John Quincy Adams* may serve as a temporary presiding officer. This would require exhuming his corpse—something never before attempted but absolutely mandated by the rules.”
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That said, neither does 2 USC 25, yet the clerk relied on it in this ruling (this time, don’t ignore the highlighting), so 🤷♂️.
https://bsky.app/profile/ringwiss.bsky.social/post/3lea75kxmx22s
https://bsky.app/profile/ringwiss.bsky.social/post/3lcxozobl7k22
Aside from that, this ⬇️ is really the ultimate one. I have no idea if it’s still good law, though.
https://download.ssrn.com/21/05/18/ssrn_id3848257_code327573.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline&X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEFsaCXVzLWVhc3QtMSJHMEUCIDcSK0yAWIXFymcCEDD0t2fe%2FPylixnR7cDz1v1GqN8kAiEAtdFoDGWo4WSgHcZRwklnKP5OHkmcbYzyULGCtVu3ZRMqvQUINBAEGgwzMDg0NzUzMDEyNTciDKvDNpwNCzwbGHWzUSqaBZSEr4WOwNMwKdeV0jY%2FT789xIaQ%2F2wbk4US1oeqNFXRJB%2FmXyQWG1z7klXmXRI1TJCAUj%2Bv4eiynkYJb%2BTBcD1RHhaiI7N9Om56UU2ukFpPEp8g%2BUyy%2B7lQhk8zNe0Qd76w8WGqpX81B7NupqaES1FgeoCE80U8AFaKblibDujpxgebZOH%2Ft04X4oZ2K1UPreqt1Efnls6bCqNyUd4%2B8et45Xq5MFPZmYMy17eq%2FYP4%2B%2BVXvCWxihhb9%2Flwz398RzapRoFGAfZGJ7JP4Qz4loX4rSgIikj0aYrPFqcrqQqYixZAOEJ6o699E%2FVTyOcmbFQrJF7BJ%2FwPS5buWWAHWMB%2F%2FI%2BEYARMfwFwfHWuoKkPH36ySHDjTGDprKt86iu2dwNkryF7FfmcAH%2FtFecr595K8wH%2FU3CdB9bAKUJHJn5OxvpBU7xzFrD6hrBk%2BAGvpHqVU4hKDh8bE8wOldsrLQ7O9nqzahk4CBiWSSkHOZ7wjNMNshx5B9IdiIIbQgcNokpJtFkaLp1moTq8V76tT%2BMkzF10LI%2Bv5VNjwMfLglkMWviT44%2B13vb2%2B5ksWBfNMeoJd1HFWDv7y%2Fme6ZBzwlusjQRzvmfpIz%2BWWknh6wwdGgHN4bNbZ8Hc68Lb%2FG%2BntSQou83CN38oHYRHwOSv1jSZZaScX39ojFjKu8hRU5pubVfqhzTbss2rRwP9dEGZtP7sN57qQrXb44W6R3XeHMH16gyoKmYVNG0Tqhi45bD5UKFdlKmf8mKaP8jf79g%2BrIEa%2BR1dfV%2Bm4BsE7inj8Gb4zuSyMFVGoLPvfpxXym0LPaOdeS6ULcjcCglgHMGNHVVriqx6ivZ94RZAm5SZ7ippKLSgHlDIZZIGcIZT9Kv3gJvwo2GDlYwwbTD3yba7BjqxAeNRadKMR8jzYIKiVc2do7a5HhuZTEhrxsCxh%2FpIv%2BXsIkThcF8gKKaD7rWrUOxadv%2BrdVA%2BIs8mExycEOdOCtiCxBGIsahmhZBTIwCNkEIaj2jaEXeh2uZ5nru6XnsnmBSyucp8LxarTmLfFMMJ7YCjvlQxITTadwd03bi1mlJHHM6ALM4tCCw7wCn6GiuYBYn31yOtbeg7yUEsys67ndbysIerA%2BSzz4TztMlkdqhvIQ%3D%3D&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20241226T194438Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=300&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAUPUUPRWE7EUKXRFL%2F20241226%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=8096c84bbef68fefe89b0aff4412d8e40a9fc87092a358a828fac1960a11ab62&abstractId=3848257