West Virginia § 4-1A-6 Scope of legislative immunity generally

West Virginia Statutes

§ 4-1A-6 — Scope of legislative immunity generally

West Virginia § 4-1A-6

Ch. 4THE LEGISLATURE

Art. 1ALEGISLATIVE IMMUNITY

This text of West Virginia § 4-1A-6 (Scope of legislative immunity generally) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

W. Va. Code § 4-1A-6 (2026).

Text

(a)Legislative immunity, affording protection under the Separation of Powers Doctrine and the Speech or Debate privilege, extends to all of a legislator's legislative acts, as defined in section three of this article.

(b)The Speech or Debate privilege, when it applies, is absolute and has two aspects:

(1)A member of the Legislature has immunity extending both to civil suits and criminal prosecutions for all actions within the legislative sphere, even though the conduct, if performed in other than a legislative context, would in itself be unconstitutional or otherwise contrary to criminal or civil statutes; and

(2)A member of the Legislature is provided a testimonial privilege that operates to protect those to whom it applies from being compelled to give testimony as to privileged ma

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(a) Legislative immunity, affording protection under the Separation of Powers Doctrine and the Speech or Debate privilege, extends to all of a legislator's legislative acts, as defined in section three of this article.

(b) The Speech or Debate privilege, when it applies, is absolute and has two aspects:

(1) A member of the Legislature has immunity extending both to civil suits and criminal prosecutions for all actions within the legislative sphere, even though the conduct, if performed in other than a legislative context, would in itself be unconstitutional or otherwise contrary to criminal or civil statutes; and

(2) A member of the Legislature is provided a testimonial privilege that operates to protect those to whom it applies from being compelled to give testimony as to privileged matters and from being compelled to produce privileged documents.