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[Bohandas]

22. There are no victimless crimes. Thus if a victim cannot be readily demonstrated, there has been no crime. A victim must be directly harmed or disadvantaged by the act to qualify as a victim.Yeah, I'd change this thing. There are such things as victims against abstract things, or against groups of people. What about littering?

In the case of littering on people's property the property owner and/or the guy who has to pick it up is the victim. In wooded regions there may be a victim if it disrupts an ecosystem that people are dependent upon. Littering in many other cases maybe victimless.

[Zrk2]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Zrk2's Bill of Rights, Draft Three

1. All persons residing in the USA shall have the right to freely express their opinions without constraint or limitation, except in such cases where they have previously agreed in writing not to do so or it infringes on the rights of others. These contracts can only be required of people dealing with extremely sensitive information and may only apply directly to said information.

2. All persons residing within the USA shall have the right to freely travel between the states without any restrictions, unless said restrictions are terms of bail or probation, or onto private property.

3. All persons residing in the USA shall have the right to own property, provided they pay all applicable taxes on said property do not use it to exert undue influence upon the lives of others.

4. Any citizen of the USA may hold any office once they have attained their age of majority.

5. No branch of government may force a person to either undertake, or not undertake a medical procedure. Abortion is a medical procedure.

6. All persons residing in the USA shall have the right to possess non-automatic firearms of a caliber less than XXX provided they do not have a felony conviction and do not have a history of mental illness which would predispose them towards dangerous actions.

7. All citizens of the USA may vote in all elections, provided their primary residence is within the jurisdiction of said election, and they are not currently in prison.

8. The president of the USA shall be elected by a ranked voting system, in which everyone ranks their choices from first to last. In every round the person with the lowest number of votes shall be eliminated, and their votes shall be re-allocated according to the rankings previously indicated. This will continue until someone achieves a majority.

9. Political ads shall be banned during election season. Instead, all persons running for the position, with a petition for them to run bearing at least 100 signatures, shall take part in a series of publicly televised, radio broadcasted, and published in all other possible forms of media.

10. The press shall have the right to publish all news as it occurs, unless a judge has specifically forbidden it, and provided in writing a detailed explanation of why it may not be published at the time of the first printing. These explanations are only valid if they provide a reasonable expectation of gross bodily harm to a person residing in the USA or endanger citizens of the USA currently abroad.

11. All persons residing in the USA shall have the right to a fair and speedy trial, either by a judge or jury of their peers, as the law dictates.

12. All persons residing in the USA shall have the right to absolute privacy of thought, possessions, beliefs, and everything else unless a warrant is granted for the search of a specific item. The warrant must cite a reasonable cause to believe that said item is involved in, or supporting a, crime. All warrants must be issued by a judge.

13. All persons residing in the USA shall have the freedom to practice whatever religion they choose, or none at all.

14. "Marriage" is no longer a recognized state of being by the state. Instead a civil union is available to persons who desire it, regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or any other similar factors.

15. Congressional terms shall be limited to three terms as a congressman, three terms as a senator, and two terms as President.

16. All persons shall have the freedom to assemble and discuss any and all issues.

17. Church and state shall remain absolutely separate. Churches shall not receives exemptions for anything which is not immediately and specifically, and directly linked to their charitable activities.

18. All state laws shall be directly subordinate to federal law in the case that said laws overlap.

19. Congress shall have the power to take measures necessary, including, but not limited to, taxation and legislation, to enforce these rights.

20. Money is not speech. Money is property.

21. All persons shall have the right to be free from discrimination based on age, gender, sexual orientation, religion ( or lack thereof) or other factors that do not directly affect the person's ability to preform the job.

22. There are no victimless crimes. Thus if a victim cannot be readily demonstrated, there has been no crime. A victim must be directly harmed or disadvantaged by the act to qualify as a victim. An act which is significantly and directly harmful to the public good shall also be considered a crime.

23. Corporations are strictly economic entities. As they are not natural persons they do not have the right to participate in the political process.

24. As the world is constantly changing the Constitution shall be opened to revision every 20 years so that each new generation may have its say on the document.

I think I fixed most of the problems, if you see anything else please bring it up.

[Eagle_eye]

I think not.

3. I would exclude foreign nationals wanted for crimes that would be felonies here.

5. This leaves things open for Jehova's witnesses types to prevent their children from getting treatment. Limit it to adults not declared insane.

6. Owning a firearm should require a psychiatric evaluation beforehand. Just because someone hasn't been obviously crazy doesn't mean they're not dangerous
 
8. I would apply this to all elected positions

9. Don't ban them, just provide a set budget to all candidates, and require factchecking.

10. I don't think courts should be able to censor the press. They tried to do that with the pentagon papers to cover the DoD's ass. Even requiring an explanation leaves it wide open.

15. I would set it to one term, so they don't try to pander to the median to get reelected

I would also include the right to healthcare regardless of financial situation, adequate nutrition, and basic shelter. The absolute necessities of life should always be available.

[Bohandas]

23. Corporations are strictly economic entities. As they are not natural persons they do not have the right to participate in the political process.

The main thrust of this is good, but the wording of the second sentence could cause problems down the line if we ever develop human cloning and/or sapient artificial intelligence.

[misko27]

I like the system of color comments, so:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Zrk2's Bill of Rights, Draft Three

1. All persons residing in the USA shall have the right to freely express their opinions without constraint or limitation, except in such cases where they have previously agreed in writing not to do so or it infringes on the rights of others. These contracts can only be required of people dealing with extremely sensitive information and may only apply directly to said information.

2. All persons residing within the USA shall have the right to freely travel between the states without any restrictions, unless said restrictions are terms of bail or probation, or onto private property.Earlier complaint stands. What about evacuations or quarentines? For the public good my man. Remember, your rights end, where other's begin.

3. All persons residing in the USA shall have the right to own property, provided they pay all applicable taxes on said property and do not use it to exert undue influence upon the lives of others.

4. Any citizen of the USA may hold any office once they have attained their age of majority.

5. No branch of government may force a person to either undertake, or not undertake a medical procedure. Abortion is a medical procedure.

6. All persons residing in the USA shall have the right to possess non-automatic firearms of a caliber less than XXX provided they do not have a felony conviction and do not have a history of mental illness which would predispose them towards dangerous actions.

7. All citizens of the USA may vote in all elections, provided their primary residence is within the jurisdiction of said election, and they are not currently in prison.

8. The president of the USA shall be elected by a ranked voting system, in which everyone ranks their choices from first to last. In every round the person with the lowest number of votes shall be eliminated, and their votes shall be re-allocated according to the rankings previously indicated. This will continue until someone achieves a majority.

9. Political ads shall be banned during election season. Instead, all persons running for the position, with a petition for them to run bearing at least 100 signatures, shall take part in a series of publicly televised, radio broadcasted, and published in all other possible forms of media.I still find this hard to work with. I mean what? 100 people? I could get that. Do you really want a heavily ambitious narcissistic sociopath to get access to millions of people? No one will care. It'd be a high school elections, no one knows who or want you are or support!

10. The press shall have the right to publish all news as it occurs, unless a judge has specifically forbidden it, and provided in writing a detailed explanation of why it may not be published at the time of the first printing. These explanations are only valid if they provide a reasonable expectation of gross bodily harm to a person residing in the USA or endanger citizens of the USA currently abroad.

11. All persons residing in the USA shall have the right to a fair and speedy trial, either by a judge or jury of their peers, as the law dictates.

12. All persons residing in the USA shall have the right to absolute privacy of thought, possessions, beliefs, and everything else unless a warrant is granted for the search of a specific item. The warrant must cite a reasonable cause to believe that said item is involved in, or supporting a, crime. All warrants must be issued by a judge.

13. All persons residing in the USA shall have the freedom to practice whatever religion they choose, or none at all.

14. "Marriage" is no longer a recognized state of being by the state. Instead a civil union is available to persons who desire it, regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or any other similar factors.

15. Congressional terms shall be limited to three terms as a congressman, three terms as a senator, and two terms as President.

16. All persons shall have the freedom to assemble and discuss any and all issues.

17. Church and state shall remain absolutely separate. Churches shall not receives exemptions for anything which is not immediately and specifically, and directly linked to their charitable activities.

18. All state laws shall be directly subordinate to federal law in the case that said laws overlap.

19. Congress shall have the power to take measures necessary, including, but not limited to, taxation and legislation, to enforce these rights. I sorta think this is unecessary, what with it being the basis for the whole freaking government.

20. Money is not speech. Money is property. Can I buy speech with money?

21. All persons shall have the right to be free from discrimination based on age, gender, sexual orientation, religion ( or lack thereof) or other factors that do not directly affect the person's ability to preform the job.

22. There are no victimless crimes. Thus if a victim cannot be readily demonstrated, there has been no crime. A victim must be directly harmed or disadvantaged by the act to qualify as a victim. An act which is significantly and directly harmful to the public good shall also be considered a crime.

23. Corporations are strictly economic entities. As they are not natural persons they do not have the right to participate in the political process.Natural persons could lead to some trouble

24. As the world is constantly changing the Constitution shall be opened to revision every 20 years so that each new generation may have its say on the document.

[Bohandas]

Some other ideas:

-Supremacy of US law within US territory. The federal government should be explicitly declared as the highest authority within its jurisdiction in general terms (ie. it is not merely higher than the states, it is the highest ruling authority). This is mainly to address three issues:
1. States' rights disputes
2. Abuses such s Libel tourism
3. The controversial and borderline treasonous inclusion of the phrase "under god" in the Pledge of Allegience

-This probably isn't important enough to be in the constitution but we should not ask foreign governments to extradite violent criminals or other criminals who could not realisticaly cause harm to the American people while in self-imposed exile

[FearfulJesuit]

Reposting from the Election Megathread:

Here's one idea I've seen bandied about at...gosh, can't remember when. In essence, you allow every county, every dozen years, say, to decide which state it wants to belong to. This would of course require a pretty extensive rewrite of federal laws about how cross-state crimes and federal jurisdiction are handled, because now the boundaries are smaller, but it fixes the problem that we currently have several states which, although they were natural states at their founding, are divided into regions that hate each others' guts. I grew up, for example, in Pittsylvania County, in south-central Virginia- a wonderful place in the way that small, rural places with salt-of-the-earth people tend to be, but pretty conservative. (Its congressional district was a swing district due to the inclusion of Charlottesville, but until... '06, I think, was represented by none other than the wild, wacky, lovable Virgil Hamlin Goode, Junior). Virginia is divided into two parts: a conservative, Southern, not all that rich rural area, and a northern, liberal, wealthy area around DC and stretching down the east coast. Both parts hate each others' guts, for good reason, I should add. There are several other states like this- Missouri, Georgia, even Florida and Pennsylvania.

There is really no good reason why these regions of the country should be forced together when they'd both be a lot happier choosing their own policies.

[Zrk2]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Zrk2's Bill of Rights, Draft Four

1. All persons residing in the USA shall have the right to freely express their opinions without constraint or limitation, except in such cases where they have previously agreed in writing not to do so or it infringes on the rights of others. These contracts can only be required of people dealing with extremely sensitive information and may only apply directly to said information.

2. All persons residing within the USA shall have the right to freely travel between the states without any restrictions, unless said restrictions are terms of bail or probation, or onto private property, or if their travel shall endanger the lives of others or the well-being of the nation.

3. All persons residing in the USA, with the exception of foreign nationals wanted for crimes that are considered felonies in the USA in their homeland, shall have the right to own property, provided they pay all applicable taxes on said property do not use it to exert undue influence upon the lives of others.

4. Any citizen of the USA may hold any office once they have attained their age of majority.

5. No branch of government may force a person to either undertake, or not undertake a medical procedure. Abortion is a medical procedure.

6. All persons residing in the USA shall have the right to possess non-automatic firearms of a caliber less than XXX provided they do not have a felony conviction and have passed a mental health exam which proves that they have no mental illnesses which will predispose them towards violence.

7. All citizens of the USA may vote in all elections, provided their primary residence is within the jurisdiction of said election, and they are not currently in prison.

8. All elected positions shall be elected by a ranked voting system, in which everyone ranks their choices from first to last. In every round the person with the lowest number of votes shall be eliminated, and their votes shall be re-allocated according to the rankings previously indicated. This will continue until someone achieves a majority.

9. Political ads shall be banned during election season. Instead, all persons running for the position, with a petition for them to run bearing at least 100 signatures, shall take part in a series of publicly televised, radio broadcasted, and published in all other possible forms of media. This one definitely needs a more nuanced approach.

10. The press shall have the right to publish all news as it occurs, unless a judge has specifically forbidden it, and provided in writing a detailed explanation of why it may not be published at the time of the first printing. These explanations are only valid if they provide a reasonable expectation of gross bodily harm to a person residing in the USA or endanger citizens of the USA currently abroad. this one also might need work. I meant it to apply specifically to court cases and active military/espionage operations, but I can see it covering some thing which shouldn't be censored.

11. All persons residing in the USA shall have the right to a fair and speedy trial, either by a judge or jury of their peers, as the law dictates.

12. All persons residing in the USA shall have the right to absolute privacy of thought, possessions, beliefs, and everything else unless a warrant is granted for the search of a specific item. The warrant must cite a reasonable cause to believe that said item is involved in, or supporting a, crime. All warrants must be issued by a judge.

13. All persons residing in the USA shall have the freedom to practice whatever religion they choose, or none at all.

14. "Marriage" is no longer a recognized state of being by the state. Instead a civil union is available to persons who desire it, regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or any other similar factors.

15. Congressional terms shall be limited to three terms as a congressman, three terms as a senator, and two terms as President.

16. All persons shall have the freedom to assemble and discuss any and all issues.

17. Church and state shall remain absolutely separate. Churches shall not receives exemptions for anything which is not immediately and specifically, and directly linked to their charitable activities.

18. All state laws shall be directly subordinate to federal law in the case that said laws overlap. when jurisdiction is not specifically defined it shall be the responsibility of the Supreme Court to determine which level of government shall have jurisdiction.

19. Congress shall have the power to take measures necessary, including, but not limited to, taxation and legislation, to enforce these rights.

20. Money is not speech. Money is property.

21. All persons shall have the right to be free from discrimination based on age, gender, sexual orientation, religion ( or lack thereof) or other factors that do not directly affect the person's ability to preform the job.

22. There are no victimless crimes. Thus if a victim cannot be readily demonstrated, there has been no crime. A victim must be directly harmed or disadvantaged by the act to qualify as a victim. An act which is significantly and directly harmful to the public good shall also be considered a crime.

23. Corporations are strictly economic entities. They do not have the right to participate in the political process.

24. As the world is constantly changing the Constitution shall be opened to revision every 20 years so that each new generation may have its say on the document.

9. Political ads shall be banned during election season. Instead, all persons running for the position, with a petition for them to run bearing at least 100 signatures, shall take part in a series of publicly televised, radio broadcasted, and published in all other possible forms of media.I still find this hard to work with. I mean what? 100 people? I could get that. Do you really want a heavily ambitious narcissistic sociopath to get access to millions of people? No one will care. It'd be a high school elections, no one knows who or want you are or support!

I don't know how we could fix that, unless we raised the requirement to 1000, or something like that.

Some other ideas:

-Supremacy of US law within US territory. The federal government should be explicitly declared as the highest authority within its jurisdiction in general terms (ie. it is not merely higher than the states, it is the highest ruling authority). This is mainly to address three issues:
1. States' rights disputes
2. Abuses such s Libel tourism
3. The controversial and borderline treasonous inclusion of the phrase "under god" in the Pledge of Allegience

-This probably isn't important enough to be in the constitution but we should not ask foreign governments to extradite violent criminals or other criminals who could not realisticaly cause harm to the American people while in self-imposed exile

I think I covered that with 18.

15. I would set it to one term, so they don't try to pander to the median to get reelected.

I can see that causing a decline in the quality of representatives, as it sounds unnecessarily short to me.

Reposting from the Election Megathread:

Here's one idea I've seen bandied about at...gosh, can't remember when. In essence, you allow every county, every dozen years, say, to decide which state it wants to belong to. This would of course require a pretty extensive rewrite of federal laws about how cross-state crimes and federal jurisdiction are handled, because now the boundaries are smaller, but it fixes the problem that we currently have several states which, although they were natural states at their founding, are divided into regions that hate each others' guts. I grew up, for example, in Pittsylvania County, in south-central Virginia- a wonderful place in the way that small, rural places with salt-of-the-earth people tend to be, but pretty conservative. (Its congressional district was a swing district due to the inclusion of Charlottesville, but until... '06, I think, was represented by none other than the wild, wacky, lovable Virgil Hamlin Goode, Junior). Virginia is divided into two parts: a conservative, Southern, not all that rich rural area, and a northern, liberal, wealthy area around DC and stretching down the east coast. Both parts hate each others' guts, for good reason, I should add. There are several other states like this- Missouri, Georgia, even Florida and Pennsylvania.

There is really no good reason why these regions of the country should be forced together when they'd both be a lot happier choosing their own policies.

I'll let someone else write that.

[FearfulJesuit]

I'll let someone else write that.

Oh, sure, some of them will choose horribly backwards policies, and that's what the feds are for. But if solidly red states like Texas and Louisiana get to be ass-backwards, on what grounds do we keep southern VA from doing it? And if California and Massachusetts get to push gay marriage through, why not northern VA? I'm not arguing from a some laws are better than others point of view here, I'm arguing from a treating all political regions equally point of view.

And if we are uncomfortable with that because of the polarization, then we need to scrap the system of states in the other direction, now, and make all of them swing states.

[Bohandas]

Some other ideas:

-Supremacy of US law within US territory. The federal government should be explicitly declared as the highest authority within its jurisdiction in general terms (ie. it is not merely higher than the states, it is the highest ruling authority). This is mainly to address three issues:
1. States' rights disputes
2. Abuses such s Libel tourism
3. The controversial and borderline treasonous inclusion of the phrase "under god" in the Pledge of Allegience

I think I covered that with 18.

But #18 only places the federal government above the states. The general statement of supremacy I'm proposing would also place it above foreign powers and God.

[Zrk2]

Some other ideas:

-Supremacy of US law within US territory. The federal government should be explicitly declared as the highest authority within its jurisdiction in general terms (ie. it is not merely higher than the states, it is the highest ruling authority). This is mainly to address three issues:
1. States' rights disputes
2. Abuses such s Libel tourism
3. The controversial and borderline treasonous inclusion of the phrase "under god" in the Pledge of Allegience

I think I covered that with 18.

But #18 only places the federal government above the states. The general statement of supremacy I'm proposing would also place it above foreign powers and God.

I thought that was assumed. the federal government is, by definition, the supreme authority in the USA.

[GlyphGryph]

The primary purpose of a consitution is not the amendments, but how it describes the structure, powers, and limitations of government. So here goes on mine:

In order to establish a society guided by democratic ideals and strengthened by effective management, we establish this government to promote the welfare and defense of the people and the continual advancement of the nation, while insuring the rights and opportunities due to each and every individual; and to establish a fair and just system of governance that treats all citizens as equal before the eyes of the law.

I. All legislative powers shall be granted to the Congress, which shall be composed of three houses.
I.1. The House of Commons, elected by fair and random lottery from amongst all citizens, will represent the common people of the United States directly within the government. Representatives in the house of commons shall serve a term of three years, with one third of the house replaced each year. There is a single term limit for Representatives in the House of Commons. The House of Commons may debate legislation, form investigative committees, and sponsor referendums[see section I'm not going to write for what I mean by referendums, but even if passed it still needs to go through another house] and constitutional amendments, and approve nominees, but may not propose new legislation of their own.
I.2. The House of Experts, elected by a national jury, shall be composed of 100 fixed positions, and the jury shall be tasked with filling each of these positions. Experts will serve a standard term of 4 years, but may be re-elected to their positions by the next jury. A jury will be convened each year, for each position, to elect the 25 Experts for this house, selected randomly from citizens who register for the position. The Jurors will convene for 3 months before voting by ranked ballot, in the form of a secret vote. During which period they may work no other jobs and may receive no other income. [more details would obviously be included in the real document here, like the 100 positions.] The Experts may write and introduce legislation, propose budgets, form special subcommittees, and nominate individuals for managing government agencies.
1.3. The House of Representatives shall be drawn from each state in equal number, in a manner decided by the states, to represent regional interests. It's members may write and introduce legislation, accept and approve budgets and approve nominees.

A bill must pass in 2 of the 3 houses of congress to become a provisional law. Provisional laws expire after 4 years if not renewed. A law that passes all three houses may become a permanent law.

Nominees from the house of experts need only the approval of a single other house to obtain their position, with the exception of the head of the executive agency, which requires the approval of all three houses.

Aaaand, that's all I have for now. Wanted to right more, but so tired.

[Bohandas]

Some other ideas:

-Supremacy of US law within US territory. The federal government should be explicitly declared as the highest authority within its jurisdiction in general terms (ie. it is not merely higher than the states, it is the highest ruling authority). This is mainly to address three issues:
1. States' rights disputes
2. Abuses such s Libel tourism
3. The controversial and borderline treasonous inclusion of the phrase "under god" in the Pledge of Allegience

I think I covered that with 18.

But #18 only places the federal government above the states. The general statement of supremacy I'm proposing would also place it above foreign powers and God.

I thought that was assumed. the federal government is, by definition, the supreme authority in the USA.

It is, and yet they still make children say the pledge of Allegiance which treasonously claims otherwise. Apparently it was ambiguous to somebody.

[Zrk2]

Some other ideas:

-Supremacy of US law within US territory. The federal government should be explicitly declared as the highest authority within its jurisdiction in general terms (ie. it is not merely higher than the states, it is the highest ruling authority). This is mainly to address three issues:
1. States' rights disputes
2. Abuses such s Libel tourism
3. The controversial and borderline treasonous inclusion of the phrase "under god" in the Pledge of Allegience

I think I covered that with 18.

But #18 only places the federal government above the states. The general statement of supremacy I'm proposing would also place it above foreign powers and God.

I thought that was assumed. the federal government is, by definition, the supreme authority in the USA.

It is, and yet they still make children say the pledge of Allegiance which treasonously claims otherwise. Apparently it was ambiguous to somebody.

I believe that was a knee-jerk anti-commie move from the 50s. Before that it was as assumed.

[Bohandas]

Some other ideas:

-Supremacy of US law within US territory. The federal government should be explicitly declared as the highest authority within its jurisdiction in general terms (ie. it is not merely higher than the states, it is the highest ruling authority). This is mainly to address three issues:
1. States' rights disputes
2. Abuses such s Libel tourism
3. The controversial and borderline treasonous inclusion of the phrase "under god" in the Pledge of Allegience

I think I covered that with 18.

But #18 only places the federal government above the states. The general statement of supremacy I'm proposing would also place it above foreign powers and God.

I thought that was assumed. the federal government is, by definition, the supreme authority in the USA.

It is, and yet they still make children say the pledge of Allegiance which treasonously claims otherwise. Apparently it was ambiguous to somebody.

I believe that was a knee-jerk anti-commie move from the 50s. Before that it was as assumed.

Either way the inclusion of the phrase "under God" is a dangerous and borderline treasonous attack on the sovereignty of the United States government