Motion to Amend The Constitution

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JaxsonWinter

JaxsonWinter

The Greater Empire of Astrodom
Executive Cabinet
Oct 3, 2022
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A MOTION

To amend the Constitution
Introduced into the Council of State of the Union of Democratic States on the 18th of June, 2023, by Guess and Check (@Zukchiva)
As follows:​

BELIEVING the Council of State is a better improvement over the Senate
YET believing that the Council of State would be better served if opened to all Citizens,
BE IT ENACTED by Council of State:

1. Article II of the Constitution shall be replaced by the following in its entirety:
“1. The Council of State (or Council/CoS) shall be composed of all citizens in good standing with the Council.
a). To lose good standing with the Council, a citizen must have been convicted of a crime and had their right to participate in the Council removed by the Supreme Court or punished by the Council following the Council’s internal procedures. Loss of good standing may be for a specific time period or permanent.
b). The Speaker of the Council shall make a list of citizens not in good standing with the Council, alongside the expected date in which their standing will be restored (if applicable).
b). Citizens who do not have good standing in the Council may not vote in Council votes, propose motions, or otherwise participate in internal Council matters. However, such citizens may still propose bills to the Council and post an opening statement for such a bill..

2. Any proposed bills will be presented to the Speaker of the Council, who shall be selected by voting citizens following the same timeline as the President.

3. The Speaker of the Council will be tasked with opening the debate and voting periods.

4. Bills will be opened for debate by the Speaker of the Council after the bill’s author(s) and other designated individuals make their opening statements, at which point all citizens may engage in debate and propose amendments.
a). Any citizen may motion to close debate at any time. This motion must be seconded to come into effect.
b). The Speaker of the Council will then move the bill into its appropriate voting stage.
c). The two voting stages will be Amendment voting, which will only be in effect if there are proposed amendments and will last for a period of 72 hours, and Full voting, which will determine the result of the bill.

5. Votes of the Council shall fail if less than three citizens vote or abstain.

6. The Council may pass motions. These do not require Presidential promulgation, and may not be vetoed. These do not hold the same legal power as laws, but some may be deemed as legally enforceable. Examples of motions the Council may pass include:
a). Vote Directives for the General Assembly of the World Assembly. When a proposal reaches a vote in the General Assembly, the Council shall reach a position if the World Assembly Delegate should vote for, against, or abstain from the measure.
b). Rules of Procedure, in which internal rules and procedures are established.
c). Committee Establishments and Dissolutions, in which a formal body consisting of appointed citizens is created or dissolved.
d). A Summon, in which the summoned individual shall answer questions before the Council.
e). This list is non-exhaustive and may be expanded upon via law or motions.

7. The Council may overturn vetoes from the President with a three-quarters supermajority.

8. The Council shall hold confirmation votes on the World Assembly Delegate, Justices, and unelected Vice Presidents. Confirmation votes shall fail if they do not reach the required amount of votes. Failed confirmation votes result in the relevant official being removed or not appointed to office.

9. The Council may remove from office the Vice President, Cabinet Ministers, Justices, the World Assembly Delegate, the Speaker, the Chief Commissioner and the Deputy Commissioner by a successful motion to that effect due to:
a). Over 10 days of inactivity.
b). Criminal conviction.
c). Other reasons established by law.

10. The Council may remove Cabinet Ministers from office by a successful motion to that effect. Citizens removed as Cabinet Ministers may not serve as Minister for the rest of the term.

11. The Council holds the power to veto Executive Orders via a majority; similar powers shall exist in regards to any form of delegated or secondary legislation.

12. All votes of the Council of State shall not be considered referendums, excluding Full Votes on constitutional amendments. Full votes on constitutional amendments shall be treated as referendums and handled by the Electoral Commission.

13. All Speaker selections of the Council of State shall not be considered elections or by-elections.”

2. Article VI, Clause 1. of the Constitution shall be amended to read: “Amendments to this constitution must be passed by a three-quarters supermajority in a referendum.”

3. Article VI, Clause 5 of the Constitution shall be amended to read: “The offices of President, Vice-President, Chief Justice, Justice, Speaker of the Council, and Deputy Speaker of the Council shall be mutually exclusive. No citizen may hold more than one such position at a time.”

4. Article VI, Clause 6 of the Constitution shall be amended to read, in its entirety: “Justices may not serve as the Attorney General.” Subclauses 6a and 6b shall be removed.
 
Helo my fellow Councillorz,

I was thinking about it, and it doesn't make sense to me that we keep the Council as a closed legislative body, mostly because I'm worried therein may be times when we won't have three citizens to vote in a matter and then the Council gets in a soft-lock. I feel it's probably better for us to open up the Council to all citizens and treat it as a "Citizen's Assembly". This does make us parliamentary by nature, but I don't think that designation really matters.

The idea behind this system is that the Council of State will include ALL citizens, excluding those either punished by the Supreme Court for a crime or by the Council following its internal procedures. This is mostly to keep in line with how we treated such matters with the Senate and how they currently are. Individuals who are excluded from the Council can still author bills for submission.

Since this is an all-citizen's legislature but we have an electoral commission, I did my best to make some changes to ensure the current status quo prevails. By meaning - no Council vote shall be a "referendum" or "election", beyond "Full Votes" on constitutional amendments. This means our status quo of having our legislature deal with everything but Constitutional amendments will still occur - the Electoral Commission will still open and close referenda on consti amendments. I felt this was worth preserving because most of our citizens dont really care about legislation matters, so we probably shouldn't be bothering the majority with such beyond the most important changes to our law.

There is one other change of note: this amendment removes the prohibition for a citizen from holding a position in all 3 branches of government alongside the mandate that the President/Cheif Justice only serve in their respective branch. Here are the original clauses:
5. No one citizen may simultaneously occupy a position in all three branches of government.

6. The President, and the Chief Justice may only serve in their respective branches, as ambassadors to other regions, or as staff within Ministries.
a). Justices may not serve in the Council.
b). Justices may not serve as the Attorney General.
Click to expand...

The reason I've changed them to the above is because it doesn't make sense to me that we restrict Ministers from being another position like Pres, VP, CJ, justice, Speaker, etc. So I removed those clauses. These last amendments allow Justices to serve in the Council as well. My overall belief is that if our region isn't bounding with activity with individuals willing to stock up every single position, it makes more sense to loosen mutual exclusivism to allow more people to serve in more positions - to a point. My amendment does preserve some mutual exclusivity, as seen with the prohbition meaning a citizen can't be pres, vp, justice, deputy speaker or speaker, or CJ at the same time.

In any case, I welcome all questions/comments/concerns regarding this.
 
Overall I think that I'm okay with this idea. Initially I kept it a closed body to provide citizens with incentive to participate within the regional government, but I do think that as we continue to grow and expand our citizenship numbers that making it an open body is an eventual step. So overall I'll support this.
 
I completely disagree with this. I don't think making it an open body will help anything - just eventually help it along to become another inactive body. If you want to partake in it, then people should have to opt into it. That gives people who are interested in it, a buy in to try it. It also helps us gauge activity too.
 
Before Debate Moves On, I would like to Remind All Honorable Members that this Chamber is not a place for Banter, This Is a Place for Serious Debate and Discussion
I Recall this Session to Order *Dramatic gavel bang*
 
Phoenix said:
I completely disagree with this. I don't think making it an open body will help anything - just eventually help it along to become another inactive body. If you want to partake in it, then people should have to opt into it. That gives people who are interested in it, a buy in to try it. It also helps us gauge activity too.
Click to expand...
I'm mostly wary of what may happen if the entire Council falls inactive and misses a few votes or something.

But now that I think about it, that probably is a bit of an unrealistic concern since such a situation would require 0 Councillors to remain. So I'll table the motion... although I am going to make another motion, later, to make some formatting fixes.
 
Zukchiva said:
I'm mostly wary of what may happen if the entire Council falls inactive and misses a few votes or something.

But now that I think about it, that probably is a bit of an unrealistic concern since such a situation would require 0 Councillors to remain. So I'll table the motion... although I am going to make another motion, later, to make some formatting fixes.
Click to expand...

i second the motion to table the Motion
 
The Motion Will be Tabled and Debate Suspended
No Voting shall commence on the Bill
 
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