13.26 Contempt.
(1) Each house may punish as a contempt, by imprisonment, a breach of its privileges or the privileges of its members; but only for one or more of the following offenses:
(a) Arresting a member or officer of the house, or procuring such member or officer to be arrested in violation of the member's privilege from arrest.
(b) Disorderly conduct in the immediate view of either house or of any committee thereof and directly tending to interrupt its proceedings.
(c) Refusing to attend or be examined as a witness, either before the house or a committee, or before any person authorized to take testimony in legislative proceedings, or to produce any books, records, documents, papers or keys according to the exigency of any subpoena.
(d) Giving or offering a bribe to a member, or attempting by menace or other corrupt means or device to control or influence a member's vote or to prevent the member from voting.
(2) The term of imprisonment a house may impose under this section shall not extend beyond the same session of the legislature.
History: 1991 a. 316; 1997 a. 35.
The legislature cannot sentence a person to confinement for contempt without notice and without giving an opportunity to respond to the charge. Groppi v. Leslie, 404 U.S. 496, 92 S. Ct. 582, 30 L. Ed. 2d 632 (1972).
Power of a legislature to punish for contempt. Boer, 1973 WLR 268.
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