82 CONSTITUTION OF MARYLAND.

Sec. 18. No Senator or Delegate shall be liable in any civil action or
criminal prosecution whatever for words spoken in debate.

Sec. 19. Each House shall be judge of the qualifications and elections
of its members, as prescribed by the Constitution and Laws of the State;
shall appoint its own officers, determine the rules of its own proceedings,
punish a member for disorderly or disrespectful behavior, and with the
consent of two-thirds of its whole number of members elected, expel a
member; but no member shall be expelled a second time for the same
offense.

Under this section the senate is made the final and exclusive judge of all ques-
tions of law and fact respecting election returns or the qualification of its members
so far as they are involved in the determination of the right of any person to be a
member thereof. Price v. Ashburn, 122 Md. 525.

Since, under this section, the senate is the only tribunal which has the power to
decide whether a vacancy in the office of state senator exists, the courts have no
jurisdiction to determine that question. Covington v. Buffett, 90 Md. 569.

If a bill is constitutionally passed, no inquiry will be made as to whether the
senate in its reconsideration thereof, complied with its rule on that subject; the
presumption is conclusive that it has done so. Baltimore, etc., Warehouse Co. v.
Canton Lumber Co., 118 Md. 149. And see Lankford v. Somerset County, 73
Md. 149.

Sec. 20. A majority of the whole number of members elected to each
House shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business; but a
smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and compel the attendance
of absent members in such manner and under such penalties as each House
may prescribe.

Sec. 21. The doors of each House and of the Committee of the Whole
shall be open, except when the business is such as ought to be kept secret.

Sec. 22. Each House shall keep a Journal of its proceedings, and cause
the same to be published. The yeas and nays of members on any question
shall, at the call of any five of them in the House of Delegates, or one in the
Senate, be entered on the Journal.

This section is mandatory. The yeas and nays should be entered on. the journals;
query as to whether they must be. Act of 1922, ch. 383, providing a Washington
county school bond issue, held not to have been validly passed by the legislature.
Authorities reviewed. Washington County v. Baker, 141 Md. 626.

See notes to sec. 30.

Sec. 23. Each House may punish by imprisonment, during the session
of the General Assembly, any person not a member, for disrespectful or
disorderly behavior in its presence, or for obstructing any of its proceedings,
or any of its officers in the execution of their duties; provided, such impris-
onment shall not at any one time exceed ten days.

Sec. 24. The House of Delegates may inquire, on the oath of witnesses,
into all complaints, grievances and offences, as the Grand Inquest of the
State, and may commit any person for any crime to the public jail, there
to remain until discharged by due course of law. They may examine and
pass all accounts of the State, relating either to the collection or expenditure
of the revenue, and appoint au'ditors to state and adjust the same. They
may call for all public or official papers and records, and send for persons
whom they may judge necessary, in the course of their inquiries, concerning