Page:Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies (1876).djvu/176

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Every deliberative assembly has the right to decide who may be present during its session; and when the assembly, either by a rule or by a vote, decides that a certain person shall not remain in the room, it is the duty of the Chairman to enforce the rule or order, using whatever force is necessary to eject the party.

The Chairman can detail members to remove the person, without calling upon the police. If, however, in enforcing the order, any one uses harsher treatment than is necessary to remove the person, the courts have held that he, and he alone, is liable to prosecution, just the same as a policeman would be under similar circumstances. However badly the man may be abused while being removed from the room, neither the Chairman nor the society are liable for damages, as, in ordering his removal, they did not exceed their legal rights.

Many of our deliberative assemblies are ecclesiastical bodies, and it is important to know how much respect will be paid to their decisions by the civil courts.