The General Assembly’s Constitutional Authority To Sanction Or Expel Its Own Members

With the Hartford Courant calling on the General Assembly to sanction Hartford Representative Minnie Gonzalez for an email she wrote the other day, I was curious about what the Connecticut Constitution says about the authority of the House or Senate to punish its own members.  Article III, section 13, entitled “Powers of each house”, states:

Each house shall determine the rules of its own proceedings, and punish members for disorderly conduct, and, with the consent of two-thirds, expel a member, but not a second time for the same cause; and shall have all other powers necessary for a branch of the legislature of a free and independent state.