Legislation Introduction Thread

[Meeker]

Constitutional Amendment to Elect the Secretary of Forum Affairs

1. Article II, Section 1, Clause 4 shall be amended to read as follows: The President shall appoint the Principal Officers of the executive departments who shall constitute the Cabinet with the exception of the Secretary of Forum Affairs except in the event that that office is vacated without a possible Deputy to replace them, with the advice and consent of the Senate, who shall all be registered voters. The President shall have power to dismiss any member of his Cabinet with the exception of the Secretary of Forum Affairs.

2. Article VIII, Section 2, Clause 2 shall be amended to read as follows: The Department of Forum Affairs shall be responsible for administering all elections to the Presidency, the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Forum Affairs and the Senate. The Secretary of Forum Affairs shall be elected under the same method as outlined in Article II, Section 2, changing "President" to "Secretary of Forum Affairs" and changing "Vice-President" to "Deputy Secretary of Forum Affairs".

3. A new clause will be added after Article VIII, Section 2, Clause 2: In the event that the office of Secretary of Forum Affairs becomes vacant, the Deputy Secretary of Forum Affairs shall succeed them. In the event of a vacancy in the office of Deputy Secretary of Forum Affiars, a special election shall be held in accordance with Article 1, Section 4, Clause 5, changing "a Class B Senate seat" to "the Deputy Secretary of Forum Affairs". In the event that both the Secretary of Forum Affairs and the Deputy Secretary of Forum Affairs become vacant, the President shall nominate a replacement candidate as stated in Article II, Section 1, Clause 4. Filing the vacancy in the Secretary of Forum Affairs shall take precedence over all other actions before the Senate.

4. Re-number as appropriate the clauses in Article VIII, Section 2.

[Meeker]

I strongly oppose this amendment. I do not think people should supervise their own elections.

Such confidence in the masses

[Meeker]

My goal is to make it so that the SoFA isn't replaced when the Presidency switches, as there's no logical reason to get rid of a good SoFA just because the President switches. It's not a political position, it's just an administrative one. If anyone has an alternative idea to accomplishing that I'd very open to it.

[Meeker]

End to Districts Clarification Amendment
1. Article I, Section 4, Clause 5 is repealed
2. Any vacancy in a Class B Senate seats shall be filled in a manner that the Senate shall prescribe by Law.

[Meeker]

Ukulele Musical Learning Standardization Act

Section 1: Each school district shall include in their musical curriculum the instruction of how to play a ukulele.
Section 2: Each school district may decide in which grade the ukulele instruction shall occur.
Section 3: School districts must provide a ukulele to each student for the duration of the unit.


This is vital legislation.

[Meeker]

Partisanship Requirement Amendment

Article V, Section 2, Clause 1 is amended to read as follows: A person may become a registered voter if he has attained twenty-five posts at the forum. In registration, the person must state his name and State of fantasy residence; in addition, he must may optionally state a political affiliation with an organized political party. If the party a person is affiliated with is declared unorganized, the person will have one week to affiliate with another organized political party.

Article V, Section 1, Clause 8 is amended to read as follows: Any political party of five or more members is considered to be an organized political party. If the membership of a political party is less than five members for more than one week, the party will be declared unorganized. A party may not attempt to reorganize for one month after it is declared unorganized. The benefits of being an organized political party may be determined by the Senate by appropriate legislation.


While I understand the moral reasons why people choose to be registered independents and members of very small parties... this ultimately is a game first and a functioning democracy second. If we want the game to work better, we need a better party system.

[Meeker]

While I understand the moral reasons why people choose to be registered independents and members of very small parties... this ultimately is a game first and a functioning democracy second. If we want the game to work better, we need a better party system.

While I agree that the resurgence of parties is good for Atlasia, I'm not sure requiring parties is the best mechanism for this.  IMHO, the Senate just killed the best motivating reason for party membership when they moved from party appointment of PR-STV vacancies to special elections, but I digress.

I'm open to any amendments or other ideas entirely that people have. My hope is that this will start a wider discussion that will fix the dismal party structure we have right now.

And you're certainly right on the PR-STV matter.

[Meeker]

Hooray! I started a nationwide debate about party structure!

[Meeker]

Regional Office Holding Rights Amendment

The rights of regions to govern themselves in the manner in which they choose, within the Republic of Atlasia, shall not be infringed by the Second Constitution of the Republican of Atlasia nor by legislation passed by the Senate of Atlasia.


This should be fun

[Meeker]

Since the first one was insufficiently clear...


Regional Office Holding Rights Amendment

The rights of regions to construct their regional government in the manner in which they choose, within the Republic of Atlasia, shall not be infringed by the Second Constitution of the Republican of Atlasia nor by legislation passed by the Senate of Atlasia.


Basically the idea here is to allow regions to decide how they want to set-up their regional governments with whatever quirks they want (the ilikeverinship in the Midwest, the Assembly in the Mideast, the reference to Xahar as "chome", etc.) and the federal government can't interfere.

If someone has better legal lingo to phrase it with I'm welcome to it.

[Meeker]

No loitering in the Legislation Introduction Thread.