If the Senate majority leader is refusing to do his job, can the other Senators vote to expel him or force a vote for new leadership?
1 Answer
Yes. The following are all options I'm aware of:
A 2/3 of the Senate (67+ votes) can vote to expel any sitting Senator as per Article 1, Section 5 of US Constitution. An expelled Senator can of course no longer serve as a Majority leader.
"Each House [of Congress] may determine the Rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member."
This requires at least 17+ votes from Majority party in 50/50 Senate, and at least 20+ Majority party votes in current 53 majority Senate, assuming that 100% of minority party unanimously agrees.
This is the only option available that members of the minority party can contribute to directly, obviously with participation of at least a meaningful part of majority party.
All other options are 100% outside the control of minority party senators.
A Majority Leader can be pressured to resign from the position voluntarily (Trent Lott was, for example).
A Majority party caucus votes to elect a new Majority leader every 2 years, during Congress change. Majority party can then choose to elect someone else.
In theory, Majority party caucus can vote to elect a new Majority leader (as they are the ones who decide who leads them) at any time. I haven't found a single case of that happening, but also no mention of any rules preventing that.
A combination of other effects (party switching, impeachments, resignations, deaths, next elections, etc...) can cause opposite party to take Majority.
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2A good reminder that there is a large section of the American constitution that is not part of The Constitution, but consists of rules, traditions, conventions... not unlike the constitution of another English speaking realm.– James KJan 5, 2019 at 19:11