SR 115-42: Selective Service Amendment

[Sirius_]

Senate Resolution

To End Selective Service

Be It Resolved in the Atlasian Senate Assembled, that upon ratification by 2/3rds of the Regions, the Fifth Constitution of Atlasia shall be amended as follows:

(...)

Section 6
Neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crimes of which the accused has been duly convicted, shall exist within the Republic of Atlasia, nor in any place under its jurisdiction, nor may any conscription into the armed forces or selective draft or other form of compulsory service be instituted. , unless approved by a public referendum in which at least three-fifths of the votes in each of the three regions are in the affirmative. The President shall have the sole authority to authorize the draft referendum.

(...)

This Constitutional Amendment prohibits selective service. Military conscription, or as it more commonly known, "the draft," is the forced enlistment of Atlasian citizens into the armed forces. Legislation had been passed some years ago to eliminate this practice, however integrating this with the First Article of the Constitution shall represent a permanent end to conscription in the Republic and reinforce our commitment to peace.

Sponsor: Nerd (written by Pyro)

[nerd73]

It is true that we currently already have legislation in place prohibiting a draft. However, in my and Pyro's view it is not an adequate safeguard against it's potential reinstation.

Who's to say some far-right Senator some day in the future won't attempt to quietly sneak such a provision into a very lengthy and generic looking piece of legislation, perhaps even bundling it with otherwise positive appearing reforms, making it such that if you come out against said legislation, you'll be painted as supporting bestiality or something crazy like that!

This amendment will provide a far stronger safeguard by prohibiting it in the Constitution.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

This type of amendment has been proposed by myself and others over the years, and it's been a while, but in the past it's never been successful. I fully support this and hope we can get the amendment ratified.

[Lumine]

As I've told Scott, I will be voting Aye to allow the regions to vote on this.

From a personal point of view, I see this as detrimental. I'd like to ask the sponsor on what happens in case our Republic faces a war situation in the future - or even, had we been forced to go to war with the South -, wouldn't this make it impossible to institute the necessary measures to field a large enough military force?

[Sirius_]

I motion for a final vote, 24 hours to object

[Sirius_]

The final vote is now open, senators, please vote aye, nay, or abstain.

[Sirius_]

Aye

[West_Midlander]

Nay.

This is a "feel good" amendment IMO which protects individual liberties now at the expense of sacrificing the defense of the nation in the event of extraordinary, liberty-threatening events such as a global world war. We can have greater freedom now, perhaps in name only so long as a draft is not in effect, and suffer the consequences later, or we can reject this.

[PPT Spiral]

Nay

[Dr. MB]

Aye

[Utah Neolib]

Aye

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Aye

[Vice President Christian Man]

Aye

[At-Large Senator LouisvilleThunder]

Nay

[Deep Dixieland Senator, Muad'dib (OSR MSR)]

Nay

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Nay

[nerd73]

Aye

[Lumine]

Aye, solely for the voters to have a say on the matter.

[FT-02 Senator A.F.E. 🇵🇸🤝🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦]

Nay

[Joseph Cao]

Nay, I respect that voters should have a say on this and it will pass without my vote, but even the prospect of very funny coalitions when it goes to a referendum doesn't really outweigh how bad of an idea this is.

[Sirius_]

This bill fails 7-7-0-4. It needed 12 to pass.