And it is optional with the Grand Lodge to do so, or, as is frequently done, to reverse the decision and reinstate the Brother.

Some of the lodges in this country claim the right to expel independently of the action of the Grand Lodge, but the claim is not valid.

The very fact that an expulsion is a penalty, affecting the general relations of the punished party with the whole fraternity, proves that its exercise never could, with propriety, be intrusted to a body so circumscribed in its authority as a subordinate lodge.

Besides, the general practice of the fraternity is against it.

The English Constitutions vest the power to expel exclusively in the Grand Lodge.[99] The severity of the punishment will at once indicate the propriety of inflicting it only for the most serious offenses, such, for instance, as immoral conduct, that would subject a candidate for initiation to rejection.
As the punishment is general, affecting the relation of the one expelled with the whole fraternity, it should not be lightly imposed, for the violation of any masonic act not general in its character.