the time the compensation of such "predecessor" has ceased.[179]


PRIVILEGE FROM ARREST

This clause is practically obsolete. It applies only to arrests in civil
suits, which were still common in this country at the time the
Constitution was adopted.[180] It does not apply to service of process
in either civil[181] or criminal cases.[182] Nor does it apply to arrest
in any criminal case. The phrase "treason, felony or breach of the
peace" is interpreted to withdraw all criminal offenses from the
operation of the privilege.[183]


THE PRIVILEGE OF SPEECH OR DEBATE

The protection of this clause is not limited to words spoken in debate,
but is applicable to written reports, to resolutions offered, to the act
of voting and to all things generally done in a session of the House by
one of its members in relation to the business before it.[184] In
Kilbourn _v._ Thompson[185] the Supreme Court quoted with approval the
following excerpt from the opinion of Chief Justice Parsons in the early
Massachusetts of Coffin _v._ Coffin,[186] giving a broad scope to the
immunity of legislators: "'These privileges are thus secured, not with
the intention of protecting the members against prosecutions for their
own benefit, but to support the rights of the people, by enabling their
representatives to execute the functions of their office without fear of
prosecutions, civil or criminal. I, therefore, think that the article
ought not to be construed strictly, but liberally, that the full design
of it may be answered. I will not confine it to delivering an opinion,