Southern Constitutional Committee of 2022 Thread (user search)

Quote from: Mr. Reactionary on January 19, 2022, 09:26:38 PM

Article II: Bill of Rights
The people of The South are naturally endowed by our creator God with certain inalienable rights which shall not be infringed under this constitution, including:

1. Freedom of Speech — All persons in the South are entitled to their freedom of thought and expression of their ideas and to communicate these ideas. No person shall be compelled to communicate or fund any thought repugnant to him, excepting sworn testimony before a court or board as well as information necessary and proper to commercial transactions. No laws shall be passed regulating or restraining the freedom of persons to reduce protected speech into other mediums, to make noncommercial copies thereof, and to publish or broadcast this protected speech. Freedom of speech and press shall be protected by the law with exceptions made for only those categories of speech not traditionally protected at common law. There shall be no law limiting the right of southern citizens to submit petitions to their elected officials free from retaliation and to sue in a proper court for proper relief. Additionally, there shall be no law prohibiting the right of persons to gather or assemble, on either public or private property, for any peaceful reason. Persons enjoy the right to associate together for the purpose of exercising any other right in concert, including the right to form entities for such purpose subject to law, as well as the right to exclude persons from noncommercial associations, the right to refuse to associate with an association, and the freedom from excessive burdens imposed upon associations.

2. Equality — All persons in the South are born equal, and shall be treated as so under the law, no matter their sex, race, color, or ethnicity, religion, parentage, disability, economic status, or State of residence within the Region. No government institution may explicitly favor one group over another, including through affirmative action programs, nor shall any government exempt its officers or employees from any law applying generally to the public nor shall the executive suspend any law without consent of the legislature. No title of nobility shall be granted within the Southern Region. No person in the South shall be excluded from participating in public life based on the arbitrary classifications enumerated herein, including participation in the militia, in court proceedings as a witness or juror, or in consideration for public office or employment.

3. Democracy — The people of The South live in a republican democracy, and therefore all law-abiding citizens who meet voting requirements as established by law shall be granted the right to vote.

4. Rights of the Accused — All persons accused of a crime shall be presumed innocent until convicted by law. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or felony crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and locale wherein the crime shall have been committed, as determined by law and allowing for changes of venue when an impartial jury cannot be empaneled, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to a writ of habeas corpus when appropriate; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, to have the assistance of counsel for his defense, to present evidence of his innocence, offer jury instructions, exclude evidence obtained in violation of this Bill of Rights, and raise alternative arguments without prejudice. No person shall be tried for a crime in absentia or by a bill of attainder. Vague criminal laws shall be construed in favor of the accused. A person may voluntarily waive any of these rights upon declaration under oath to the court that such waiver is being made knowingly and freely.

5. Right to Privacy — All people have the general right to privacy subject to the public health and safety. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, records, and property, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall be issued, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. No Soldier, militiaman, police, or public employee shall, in time of peace be quartered in any private property, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, invasion, or imminent peril, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. No person shall be required by law to present identification merely to be physically present in a public place. No list or database shall ever be created, compiled, or maintained of any privately owned weapons nor shall any list or database of persons exercising these rights be created.

6. Right to Religious Freedom — Each person possesses the right to believe or not believe whatever religious ideas they choose. No government shall infringe upon anyone's right to believe, worship, or participate in religious rites, subject to laws of general applicability where a reasonable accommodation is not possible. No person conscientiously opposed to the bearing of arms shall be compelled to do so. Furthermore there shall be no preference, endorsement, nor biases against or in favor of any one religion or a combination of religions, nor shall the religious be excluded from receiving public funds. No religious test or oath of office shall be required for public office or public employment. No government power shall be delegated to a religious body or organization nor shall the government have any power to determine or resolve disputed religious doctrine. The use of nondenominational prayers by public officials and employees shall not constitute the preferencing or endorsement of a religion nor shall the use of the Bible as a teaching tool in public schools, provided that such instructional use is not presented as pure fact.

7. Right to Property — All persons possess the general right of quiet enjoyment of their real, personal, and intangible property including the right to use, transport, alienate, and dispose of such property subject to the public interest. The taking of private property of any type for actual use by the public without just compensation determined by a proper court of law is prohibited, and the owner of any property taken in such manner shall have the right to reacquire such property for just compensation if such property is not actually used by the public.

8. Right to Travel — All persons have the right to move, travel, and roam, with or without other persons and with or without their lawful property on public lands and right-of-ways, when such movement does not imminently jeopardize the public health or safety. All persons also have the right to hunt, fish, forage for sustenance, camp, harvest timber, and consume public natural resources subject to reasonable laws for the promotion of conservation and good stewardship.

9. No Taxation Without Representation — No citizen subject to taxation who meets the general voting requirements shall be denied the opportunity to vote for their representation in government.

10. Right to Arms —The right of all persons who have not been convicted of a violent crime or have been declared incompetent through due process of law to own and publicly carry as many of any type of any lawful weapon as is desired for whatever lawful purpose shall not be infringed. Lawful weapons include but shall not be limited to any caliber of any firearm that can be carried and operated by a single person, bladed or blunt melee weapons, fireworks, hand-propelled explosives such as hand grenades, and electric stun guns. Accessories and ammunition for lawful weapons shall be construed as lawful weapons.

11. Cruel and Unusual Punishment — Excessive bail shall not be required nor unreasonably denied when the suspect is not a flight or safety risk, nor excessive fines or punitive damages imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. Humane capital punishment after due process for murder or rape convictions shall not be considered a cruel or unusual punishment.

12. Personal autonomy — All persons are sovereign over their physical persons. All persons have a right to be born. All persons have a right to a name. All persons have the right to engage in self-dense. No competent person shall be compelled to receive any medical treatment, sterilization, abortion, drug, or vaccine, nor shall any competent person be compelled to ingest anything or receive any tattoo, marking, or microchip. No person shall be compelled to engage in sexual conduct with any person nor shall any consenting adults be prohibited from engaging in sexual conduct in private, except when knowingly infecting a partner with a sexually transmissible disease without that partner’s knowledge. Slavery and involuntary servitude, whether as a result of legal status, punishment, peonage, debts, or contracts is hereby prohibited.

13. Family — All persons have the right to form families. No two consenting adults disrelated by blood by at least two degrees of family lineage shall be prohibited from legal marriage. No person shall be prohibited by law from conceiving and bearing children nor shall any law unreasonably limit the legal adoption of children by adults determined by law to be competent parents or of incapacitated adults by family members determined by law to be competent guardians. Parents shall have the right to direct the care, custody, and education of their child, provided that the best interests of the child are not greatly endangered by such determination. Family members and descendants shall be entitled to prevent the intentional desecration, destruction, damaging, or removal of the graves of and public monuments to their loved ones, whether by force, injunction, or other legal remedy.

14. Contract — All persons possess the general right to contract with other persons, whether for goods, property, wages, labor, personal services, insurance, or other lawful purpose, subject to the public policy and laws of the Southern Region. No person shall refuse to contract with another person for goods, property, wages, or insurance on the basis of being a member in a classification protected in Paragraph 2 of this Bill of Rights.

15. Labor — All persons possess the right to engage in a skilled trade, the right to alienate their labor, the right to collectively bargain their labor, the right to form and join unions for such purpose, the right to refuse to join or fund unions without retaliation, and the right to privacy both through a secret ballot in any union certification election and protection from having personal information given by an employer to representatives of a union.

16. Civil Lawsuits — In civil cases where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty-five thousand dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court, than according to the rules of the common law. Equitable remedies shall be solely reserved for the judiciary which shall possess the power to issue all writs to provide an adequate remedy. No defendant shall be denied the presumption of non-liability. Any person may settle a civil claim without approval of a court.

17. Crime Victims— The victim of any crime as determined by due process of law shall be entitled to restitution from the criminal, the right to address the court prior to sentencing, and the right to notice when the criminal has escaped or is released from prison.

18. Marijuana — The right of adults to cultivate, harvest, and consume tobacco, marijuana, cannabis, or derivatives thereof shall not be violated, subject to reasonable regulation of the time, place, and manner of consuming the same. No law shall prohibit in totality the commercial sale of such products.

19. Revolution — Government being instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security, of the whole community, and not for the private interest or emolument of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government. The doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power, and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.

20. Other Rights — The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

This is an excellent starting point.

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