SB 2016-074: Amend. to Art. 1, Sect. 6 of the Constit. (Passed)

[Anna Komnene]

Oh lookie another one of those bills sponsored by that Representative Siren lady.  I sure like her bills. 

I was happy to sponsor this amendment for Justice Jbrase back when I was in the House.  This is what he had to say about it at the time.

Since I wrote this I would like to chime in:

The military has demonstrated it is more than capable of running purely on the power of volunteer recruits. On the point of extreme circumstances where more are needed then I would ask that do we not have confidence in our own people that in time is national distress people wouldn't answer to the call out of patriotism? And if its not a national emergency where the country itself is in danger of direct attack then I would seriously question our being involved in whatever the fight is to begin with.

. . .

Because banning coercion of people into service against their will, no matter how noble the cause may seem, is something that should be enshrined in constitutional law for all time, and not endangered by shifting opinions of the state.

and this is what I had to say...

Generally, I think the ability to choose what we do in life (within reason) is paramount to having a free society.  Regardless of your religious beliefs, we only live the life we're currently leading once, so we should get a say in whether we do things that might put our life in danger.  If necessary, the military or government can always do things that might make volunteering to serve more appealing, but I don't think forcing someone to serve is doing anyone any good even in an emergency.

Yeah yeah, lazy re-post from the low energy Senator from Fremont... but the arguments are still just as relevant today!

[Anna Komnene]

Aye

[Anna Komnene]

I'd like to motion to suspend the rules in order to bring this back to the floor so we can discuss Speaker Yankee's concern.

[Anna Komnene]

I actually agree with you SJoyce, but the problem is there is going to be a campaign to defeat the amendment based on Yankee's argument.  I would rather we try to fix the wording of the amendment instead to head it off (maybe by changing "involuntary servitude" to "forced labor" or adding a clause specifically saying that prisons are fine).

[Anna Komnene]

Aye

I realize that sending this amendment back to the House will likely kill it which is sad, but I think fixing the language is more important.

[Anna Komnene]

Okay so here's what we're working with as it stands.  We need to come up with the ideal wording so that 1) the constitution reflects the values of Atlasia, 2) it's obvious to literally anyone that prisons are constitutional, and 3) we're all happy to vote for it.

So far some ideas have been to change "involuntary servitude" to "forced labor," include some sort of clause about prisons, or to make a distinction between slavery and involuntarily servitude my moving the wording around.  What do people think is best?  Any other ideas to make this better?

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[Anna Komnene]

The amendment is friendly.

[Anna Komnene]

I'm going to say hostile in order to see what everyone thinks.

I feel like community service wouldn't be banned.  There are schools in the US that have mandatory community service that haven't been ruled unconstitutional under the current language, and besides, I don't think a court would decide that lesser sentences are banned in favor of more arduous sentences.

[Anna Komnene]

Abstain

[Anna Komnene]

Aye