Southeastern Inititiative #2

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

In the recent case Fritz v. Ernest I asserted the opinion that the description of the Governor's role in the Southeastern Constitution as "chief officer" instead of as "chief executive officer" implied that the office also held the judicial authority of our Region.  Wjile making such an assertion was useful in the context of that case, I am troubled by ot on two grounds.  First of all, altho the judicial authority is not vested in any other office by the Constitution, the style of Article I is, "Regional Executive Authority",  so an logical argument could be constructed on the basis of this and other wording that the office of Governor has only executive authority.  Secondly, I am an ardent believer in the seperation of powers as the best guardian of the rights of the people.  It is why I am such an ardent supporter of Regional Rights, so that the people shall have a means other than bloody revolution by which they may preserve such rights against the intrusion of a unitary government.  Hence I shall place the following intiative before the people at the next opportunity to create an independent Southeastern Judicary.  Should it be rejected, that rejection can be taken as a butress of my opinion that the Governor is also the chief judicial officer, since the judicial power must lie somewhere and the Govermor (and Leiutenant Governor) are the only officials provided for in the Constitution.
Independent Judiciary Amendment Initiative

Shall the Southeastern Constitution be amended as follows:

§ 1. The phrase "chief officer" in section 6 of Article I shall be replaced by "chief executive officer".

§ 2. The phrase "the Lieutenant Governor or federal Senator" in section 6 of Article I shall be replaced by "the Lieutenant Governor or the Magistrate".

§ 3. The follwing section 10 shall be added to Article I:
"10. The Governor may nominate a Magistrate subject to approval by the majority of voters at the next election at which an initiative could be voted on."

§ 4. The first sentence of Section 2 of Article II shall be replaced by:
"The Citizens of the Southeastern Region may recall any regional official."

§ 5. The following Article V shall be added to the Constitution:
"Article V: Regional Judicial Authority

"1. The Magistrate of the Southeastern Region shall serve until either his resignation, recall, or the approval by the voters of a replacement nominated by the Governor.

"2. The Magistrate shall be the chief judicial officer of the Southeastern Region and is responsible for the adminstration of the courts of the Southeastern Region.

"3. In the event that the office of Magistrate be vacant, the Lieutenant Governor shall have authority to act in his stead only on such matters as will not admit of delay."
Section 1 makes it clear that the Governor will upon adoption of this initiative be charged with only executive authority.

Section 2 adds the Magistrate to the list of officials who may step in for the Governor as needed, and removes the federal Senator since Senators are no longer elected from Regions, hence there is no Southeastern Senator.

Section 3 specifies the Governor's role in the selection of the Magistrate.  I chose a selection process (detailed in part here, and in part in Section 5 of this initiative) that should hopefully keep the need for magisterial elections to a minimum.

Section 4 removes the specific listing of particular officials that can be recalled.  Strictly speaking, the removal isn't needed, but rather than adding the Magistrate, or chancing that his omission would be misimplied as that he couldn't be recalled, I struck the list.

Section 5 spells out the powers of the Magistrate.  I left the Governor out of the loop and used the Lieutenant Governor as the substitute Magistrate on purpose so as to avoid reconcentrating the power under a single offical again.

[Niles Caulder]

As a citizen of the fine Southeast Region, I find this a worthy and timely avenue of legal refinement.  While I have yet to give the details the full attention it deserves, I applaud this draft being submitted for public review.  Let's all take advantage of this opportunity to advance Regional Constitutions to the quality our citizenry deserves.  The rest of the nation will be looking at this endeavor for guidance when their time comes.

[Siege40]

Ernest, I must say, you're doing quite well for yourself as Governor of the Southeast. If I'm not elected to the Senate, perhaps I'll have to institute some reform myself...

Siege

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Thank you for the complement, Governor.  I actually have quite a few things I'd like to do on my agenda, but I realize that I can't overload the attention of the voters.  Implementing the Lottery that was approved by them of course takes first priority since it was a strongly  supported initiative.  The Fritz v. Ernest case still has the public's eye, so anything related to that gets second priority.  As time and energy permit, I have other things I want to do, but I think no one wil be able to complain about inacivity on my part, tho they may complain about my activities.

[Niles Caulder]

I have some issues to pose regarding the constitutional changes:

Of course first and foremost is the popular affirmation of the Magistrate.  If the nominations are going to face direct democratic review anyway, might we not just simplify the matter and have them be elected positions?  Conversly, we can have the magistrate be an appointed position at the discretion of the Governor at the beginning of his/her term.

Perhaps the Magistrate Office can be an expansion of the "ticket" idea, someone whom a gubernatorial candidate officially signifies as his 'judicial running mate'?

Also, since we're editting the constitution...the contraction "Y'all" needs an apostrophe.

[Peter]

Perhaps the Magistrate Office can be an expansion of the "ticket" idea, someone whom a gubernatorial candidate officially signifies as his 'judicial running mate'?

I think thats at odds with Ernest's intention which is to separate executive from judiciary, not have them elected together.

[Niles Caulder]

point taken.  Given the term would expire along with the governor's--the force of separation would be quite muted.  A seperate official election would do the trick.

[Niles Caulder]

OK, I'm just going to throw this out, and rapidly duck under a table before the vegitables start flying.

"Regional Legislation"  ?


[tosses over table and hunkers down]

[Peter]

I thought that was what initiatives and petitions were all about, after all there aren't nearly enough active people in all the regions to have active regional legislatures.

[KEmperor]

I thought that was what initiatives and petitions were all about, after all there aren't nearly enough active people in all the regions to have active regional legislatures.

Exactly.  In the Northeast, which is the most heavily populated, we have the people acting as the legislature.

[Niles Caulder]

OK, I see it now.  The Consitution accomodates the issue.  The numbering is off, however in that "5" is utilized twice.  let's fix that as well.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

OK, here's a revised version that fixes the numbering of the sections of Article I.  It's a minor problem, but as long as its been pointed out, it ought to be fixed.

Independent Judiciary Amendment Initiative

Shall the Southeastern Constitution be amended as follows:

§ 1.  The second section 5 and sections 6-9 of Article I shall be renumbered as sections 6-10.

§ 2. The phrase "chief officer" in section 7 of Article I shall be replaced by "chief executive officer".

§ 3. The phrase "the Lieutenant Governor or federal Senator" in section 7 of Article I shall be replaced by "the Lieutenant Governor or the Magistrate".

§ 4. The follwing section 11 shall be added to Article I:
"11. The Governor may nominate a Magistrate subject to approval by the majority of voters at the next election at which an initiative could be voted on."

§ 5. The first sentence of Section 2 of Article II shall be replaced by:
"The Citizens of the Southeastern Region may recall any regional official."

§ 6. The following Article V shall be added to the Constitution:
"Article V: Regional Judicial Authority

"1. The Magistrate of the Southeastern Region shall serve until either his resignation, recall, or the approval by the voters of a replacement nominated by the Governor.

"2. The Magistrate shall be the chief judicial officer of the Southeastern Region and is responsible for the adminstration of the courts of the Southeastern Region.

"3. In the event that the office of Magistrate be vacant, the Lieutenant Governor shall have authority to act in his stead only on such matters as will not admit of delay."

[Niles Caulder]

§ 4. The follwing section 11 shall be added to Article I:
"11. The Governor may nominate a Magistrate subject to approval by the majority of voters at the next election at which an initiative could be voted on."

I'm still feeling nebulous about this.  Does this mean following every gubernatorial election there will be a subsequent election to confirm/reject the Magistrate nominee?  If so, I think that's cumbersome.  My suggestion would be either:

a) Have the office of Magistrate be an outright appointed position of a two month term, subject to dismissal only by popular recall,
or,
b) Have the office of Magistrate be an elected position, perhaps at intervals alternating that of the Governor's seat.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

No, that wasn't what I meant at all.  If a Governor continues in office there is no need for a new magisterial election unless he wants a different Magistrate.  A new Governor also doesn't get to instantly have a Magistrate that agrees with him either.

An Example:
Suppose Governor A nominates Magistrate B who gets approved by the voters.  Magistrate B keeps his office until he loses it so if Governor A likes the job Magistrate B is doing, he doesn't have to do anything at all.  No need to clutter the forum up with additional elections, speeches or whatever for what will hopefully be a minor but occassionally neccessary office in terms of fantasy politics.  Now suppose in a future election Governor C wins office and decides that he wants to keep B as Magistrate, so again no pesky election needed.  However if Governor D wins office and would like his good buddy E to be the magstrate, he can nominate E.  Magistrate B still remains in office until at least the next election and even continues in office if E fails to win approval.

I'm tried to come up with an system of picking Magistrates that insulates them from the electorate, so I don't want direct elections or appointment at the pleasure of the Governor, but I don't want them  entirely isolated as a life term would cause them to be.  The nature of fantasy politics I think makes an excessively long term impractical as well.  I'll admit that the system I've given here is a novel system, as far as I know, but it achieves the goal I want.  Of course if the people don't like it they can always choose another method by using the initiative process.

[Niles Caulder]

I see what you're saying.  Yeah, it is novel!  I like it better than both of my suggestions.

So long as I'm correct in thinking that a governor's ability to propose initiatives for public vote are presented at the next regular election cycle, I think your language is legally adequate to engender the system you described.

We still need to put an apostrophe in "Y'all."

And I am officially supporting this initiative.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

At present, inititiatives are held concurrently with gubernatorial elections.  Given the volume of inititive I have in mind, I'm thinking of proposing an initiative that would make initiative elections monthly so that our "legislature" can have ther say more often.  In months with gubernatorial elections, initiatives would still be held concurently, and of course recalls and other special elections can be held at any time.

[Niles Caulder]

At present, inititiatives are held concurrently with gubernatorial elections.  Given the volume of inititive I have in mind, I'm thinking of proposing an initiative that would make initiative elections monthly so that our "legislature" can have ther say more often.  In months with gubernatorial elections, initiatives would still be held concurently, and of course recalls and other special elections can be held at any time.

I find that amenable, but it then begs the question of whether a Governor should be permitted the opportunity to nominate a Magistrate twice per term?  I'm inclined to steer clear of that privilege.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I figure that a Governor who pesters the people with too many Magisterial nominations will soon be out of a job himself, and allowing the possibility every month allows for a speedy filling of the office in the event of resignation or recall.

[Niles Caulder]

Point taken.  I say lift anchor; this looks seaworthy.