Felt’s Parliamentary Procedure/Questions of Privilege
QUESTIONS OF PRIVILEGE.
87. Questions of privilege are those affecting the rights and privileges of an assembly, or of its individual members. They are of two kinds—those affecting the whole assembly as a body, and those affecting an individual member, and rank in the order named—i. e., the questions affecting the rights, safety, dignity, or integrity of the assembly as a body take precedence of and should be acted upon before those affecting a member. All such questions take precedence of questions of order and of all other questions for the time being, or if the question of privilege is requiring immediate action it may even interrupt a member while speaking. While questions of privilege, questions of order and questions of consideration are not, properly speaking, motions, they take a high rank in every deliberative assembly and may give rise to motions which may even supersede a motion to adjourn, or to fix the time to which to adjourn. The questions of privilege and the motions arising from them must first be acted upon.
When rising to a question of privilege the member should not wait for recognition by the chair before stating his object in rising.
88. The form is, “Mr. Chairman, I rise to a question of privilege.” The chairman will ask the member to state his question. After the member states the question it is the chairman's prerogative to decide whether it is properly a question of privilege or one that requires immediate action. This decision is subject to an appeal (124) to the assembly. If it is decided to be a question of privilege, it temporarily supersedes the question pending at the time, together with all subsidiary (93) and incidental (123) motions, and it must be disposed of, though not of necessity decided at once, as it may be postponed or have any subsidiary motion applied to it, but if the question is postponed, tabled or referred to a committee it loses its right of precedence. After the question of privilege have been disposed of the assembly resumes the business interrupted by the question and the member speaking at the time of interruption, if any, is entitled to the floor.
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