The investigative power is a power which only
the Senate itself can preserve and protect. It is not
a party responsibility. The Senate alone has the
power and the responsibility. Here the courts have no
function. The Executive cannot enter. Even the Congress
as a whole is not responsible. Each body of the Congress
is responsible, and alone responsible, for the
com¬mittees and for the members who exercise its power
in its name. And in the case of the whole Senate, the whole Senate is
responsible, because the whole Senate is injured.
In the words of the Constitution (Art. 1, Sec. 5)
"Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings,
punish its Members for disorderly Behavior . . . and
for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall
not be questioned in any other place."
Mr. President, this provision of the
Constitution is often said to give members immunity from
responsibility but this immunity relates solely to
the forum in which they shall be held accountable.
When the Founding Fathers took from a person
who might be libeled from the floor of the Senate
the right to have recourse in the courts, they did
not mean that the floor of the Senate should become
-2-
Fulbright Speeches
