1. The right to freedom of speech, writing and expression will not be infringed. 2. The right to freely practice religion and religious ceremonies will not be infringed, unless it is directly harmful to another person or animal. 3. A person has a write to consume any substance of their choice without infringement from the government. 4. A person has the right to possess firearms. The state may require permits for handguns, but may not restrict the possession of long guns. 5. If any region, county, town, city, or village votes to secede, the government will not interfere in any way. 6. A victim of a criminal act and other wrong has the right to file a civil suit, and has the write to bring criminal charges in the case of inaction by the state. 7. An accused person has the right to trial by jury. No person may be required to testify against his or herself or provide testimony to any state authority without his or her consent. 8. As outlined in the preface, all people have the right to food, housing, healthcare, clothing, and education at no cost. 9. Animals, including birds, have a right to be free from pain, torture, overcrowded or unsanitary living conditions, and sensory deprivation. Preface I. President II. Departments and Companies III. People’s Assembly Council IV. Initiatives and Petitions V. The Legal System VI. Local Governments VII. Federalism and Treaties VIII. Essential Rights Preface The People of the State of New York, in order to ensure the prosperity, safety, and well being of all people regardless of previous economic conditions, establish this Moneyless Common Government. On this the ____ Day of ____________, in the Year ________ A.D. I. President a. The President shall retain sovereign police power over the territory described in this document, except in areas that have separated from the state and the Indian enclaves. He or she is responsible for the health, safety and security of all the residents of the state, and is solely responsible for the actions of all executive subordinates. b. Elections will be held every two years, in even years, on May 1st, with the term commencing July 1st. On November 1st of the year preceding the election year, signature collection will begin. Candidates must have at least 25,000 signatures to appear on the primary ballot. The primary will be held on March 1st. The eight top candidates will advance to the general election on May 1st. In the general election, voters will rank the candidates from, representing their first choice to their last choice. Thereby the candidate with the lowest number wins. c. The President will have the authority to oversee and direct all executive departments (as described in Section II). The president is personally responsible for all actions taken by executive departments, and must closely monitor the practices of these departments. The president is responsible for directorial appointments within the executive departments. The president will be the commander in chief of the military and responsible for defense related issues, as well as espionage and intelligence gathering activities. d. The President may reject any law, code, or resolution passed by the PAC, unless it was passed by a 60% or greater supermajority. e. The President and his or her representatives have the sole authority to conduct diplomatic relations and make treaties and agreements worldwide. II. Departments and Companies a. The Department of Health will ensure that all people in the state have access to healthcare for no compensation. In order to facilitate this, the Department will operate the state hospitals, and will monitor and oversee the operations of community hospitals, clinics, and primary care practices throughout the state. It will also oversee local ambulance and EMS services. The investigative division will ensure that all healthcare facilities are following regulations. It will also enforce the prohibition on for profit healthcare as outlined in the Declaration of Human Rights. The governor must appoint a medically qualified individual as the Director of Health. b. The Department of Agriculture is responsible for cultivation, harvesting, processing, and distributing food throughout the state. The Department will manage farmland, food processing centers, and distribution facilities, and distribute food to local communities. The Department may not accept payment in any form for the food it produces. c. The Department of Education will manage the various public colleges and universities throughout the state, and give material support to the private colleges and universities. It will support practical and theoretical research conducted by scientists, professors, graduates, and undergraduates. The department will oversee the certification of local public schools, and provide material support to those schools. d. Power and Utility Authority will generate electricity and maintain primary transmission lines throughout the state (residential lines will be maintained locally). It must work toward the goal of generating 100% of electricity from renewable sources. It will also maintain cell phone towers and cable TV systems, internet access and other communication infrastructure. e. The State Attorney’s Office will prosecute criminal cases and argue civil cases on behalf of the state. Each county will have its own state attorney. The Attorney general in Albany will office direct the office. The state police will be under the jurisdiction of this office. f. The organized military forces will consist of an army and air force, as well as coastal defense forces. It will be commanded by the president and an appointed field marshal and responsible to protect against incursions from other entities, including neighboring states. g. The treasury will issue credits and subsequently track them as they are used. The treasury will also convert credits into currency for use in other states. h. Manufacturing, technology and service organizations may be created by the president when the need arises. III. People Assembly Council a. The PAC will consist of 275 representatives. Districts will be drawn along county lines, and all districts must be contained within a single county. County representation will be allocated in the following way. (Subject to change based on population) Albany 10 Alleghany 2 Broome 6 Cattaraugus 3 Cayuga 3 Chautauqua 4 Chemung 3 Chenango 2 Clinton 3 Columbia 2 Cortland 2 Delaware 2 Duchess 10 Erie 30 Essex 1 Franklin 2 Fulton 2 Genesee 2 Greene 2 Hamilton 1 Herkimer 2 Jefferson 4 Lewis 1 Livingston 2 Madison 2 Monroe 25 Montgomery 2 Niagara 7 Oneida 8 Onondaga 15 Ontario 4 Orange 12 Orleans 1 Oswego 4 Otsego 2 Putnam 3 Rennsealear 4 Rockland 10 St Lawrence 4 Saratoga 7 Schenectady 5 Schoharie 1 Schuyler 1 Seneca 1 Stuben 3 Sullivan 3 Tioga 2 Tompkins 3 Ulster 5 Warren 2 Washington 2 Wayne 3 Westchester 31 Wyoming 1 Yates 1 b. PAC members will be elected in accordance with Section IV, with four candidates per seat in the general election. Elections will be held every two years, in even years, on May 1st. PAC members will take office on July 1st of that same year. c. The PAC will hold regular sessions in Albany throughout the year to vote on issues proposed by members as well as issues proposed by the president. 138 yes votes will be required for a proposed issue to pass. d. Proposal of bills i. Any member of the PAC may propose bills at any time. However, a proposed bill must get at least ten sponsors to advance to a floor vote. Bills that pass will be forwarded to the president for consideration. The President may not reject a bill that has passed by more than 60%. If the president rejects a bill that has passed by less than 60%, it may be voted on again to determine if a 60% supermajority exists. ii. Treaties or agreements with other governments must be approved by at least a 60% supermajority. Municipal incorporation requests must also be approved by at least a 60% supermajority. iii. The PAC has the sole responsibility for creating and maintaining the legal code of the state. The president may not make changes to the legal code. The PAC must pass all changes to the legal code. iv. A popular proposal as outlined in Section IV holds precedence over any action of the PAC. A popular proposal may be used to repeal a law or code passed by the PAC, and may also create a law or code not passed by the PAC. The PAC may not overturn popular proposals. e. Each member will act as an administrator and oversee state activities in their home districts. They will make brief quarterly reports to the governor about their districts. IV. Petitions, Impeachments and Voting a. To amend this document, the amendment must be approved by a majority popular vote. Such an imitative may be popularly proposed, or submitted by the assembly or president. A popularly approved amendment to this document will be binding. b. A popular proposal may also be used to change the legal or administrative code. A simple majority of voters must approve this. c. Impeachment proposals to remove the president must be signed by 500,000 people to be voted on. An impeachment proposal must be voted on the first of the month after it collects 500,000 signatures. If a majority votes to remove the President, they will be removed and another general election must be held within 30 days, consisting of the seven candidates that didn’t win during the previous election cycle. The Chief Judge will act as president during this time, but will not hold the title. d. A popular proposal is an initiative that has been proposed by citizens and circulated in petition form. A popular proposal must have at least 100,000 signatures to be voted on. Popular proposals gaining the required signatures will come to a vote on May 1st of the following year, except in the case of proposals that gain the required number of signatures between January 1st and March 31st, in which case they will come to a vote on May 1st of the same year. e. All persons 16 years and up will be able to vote in all elections. Persons under 16 will be able to vote if they pass a civic competency test. The competency test will be held at various times throughout the year and test the subject’s knowledge of civics and history. f. For primary ballot spots, candidates will have three months to collect the required number of signatures. The collection period will be between November 1st and January 31st. For popular proposal petitions, the signature collection period will be unlimited. For impeachment proposals, the required number of signatures must be collected within a six-month period. g. General Elections and Primaries i. All elections for state offices and judge positions will be held in the following way ii. The primary election for president will be held on March 1st of election years. All candidates that have collected at least 25,000 signatures will appear on the primary ballot. Voters will select their top three choices from the primary ballot candidates. The eight candidates with the highest number will advance. iii. The general election for president will be held every two years, in even years, on May 1st. Voters will rank the candidates from one to eight, with one being their first choice, and eight being their last choice. The candidate with the lowest number will win. iv. The primary elections for PAC will be held on March 1st of the election year in each PAC district. 100 signatures will be required to appear on a primary ballot. Voters will select their top two choices, and the four candidates with the highest score will advance to the general election. v. The general elections for PAC will be held on May 1st, every two years, in even years. Voters will rank the candidates from one to four, with one being their first choice, and four being their last choice. The candidate with the lowest number will win. vi. The primary elections for High Court of Appeals will be held on March 1st of the election year. 5,000 signatures will be required to appear on a primary ballot. Voters will select their top five choices, and the fifteen candidates with the highest score will advance. vii. The general elections for High Court of Appeals will be held on May 1st, every four years, in odd years. Voters will rank the candidates from one to fifteen, with one being their first choice, and fifteen being their last choice. The seven candidates with the lowest numbers will become the judges. The candidate with the overall lowest number will become Chief Judge. viii. The primary elections for Court of Appeals will be held on March 1st of the election year in each judicial district. 500 signatures will be required to appear on a primary ballot. Voters will select their top four choices, and the twelve candidates with the highest score will advance. ix. The general elections for Court of Appeals will be held on May 1st, every two years, in odd years. Voters will rank the candidates from one to twelve, with one being their first choice, and twelve being their last choice. The six candidates with the lowest numbers will become the judges. x. The primary elections for County Courts will be held on March 1st of the election year in each county. The number of signatures required to appear on the ballot will vary by county. The number of candidates that advance to the general election will vary based on the number of judge seats in that county. The number of candidates advancing to the general election will be twice the number of available seats in that county. xi. The general elections for County Court will be held on May 1st, every two years, in odd years. Voters will rank the candidates from their favorite to their least favorite. The candidates with the lowest numbers will become the judges, in accordance with how many available seats exist in each county. V. The Legal System a. The court system is to be fully independent from the state government. Judges are to be volunteers and may not be compensated by the state in any way, so as to eliminate potential bias. Courthouses will not be considered government buildings or be under its authority. b. In felony cases, a twelve-person jury, chosen at random, must unanimously elect to convict the defendant. A jury must not just consider the law, but also consider whether the law is right or wrong. The prosecutor and defense attorney must make their arguments in front of the jury, and the jurors must be allowed to ask questions to both sides, as well as ask the witnesses questions. The defendant(s), their attorney and the prosecutor and victim(s) may be present to make arguments during jury deliberation, during which the jury may also ask questions. i. In order for the state attorney to prosecute a person for a felony complaint, they must first present the case to a ten-member grand jury. In order for the case to go to trial, at least six of the ten members must elect to indict. If less than six elect to indict, the case is dismissed. The subject of a grand jury investigation must be notified of the investigation, and be given the right to testify before the grand jury. ii. In the case of failure to act by the state attorney, the victim(s) of a crime may present the case directly to a grand jury for indictment by filing in county criminal court. iii. In the case of crimes committed by a person acting in an official capacity, the presiding judge shall appoint a special prosecutor who is not connected to the state attorney’s office. The judge must appoint the special prosecutor before a grand jury is convened. c. If a jury convicts a criminal defendant, they then must determine the sentence at a sentencing hearing, in which the defendant(s) and victim(s) may be present to make statements to the jury. d. In Civil cases, a 10-person jury must be convened for the purpose of ruling on the case. If 8 or more of the juror’s side with the plaintiff, the plaintiff wins. If less than six side with the plaintiff, the case is dismissed. In civil cases, the plaintiff and defendant, and their respective attorneys, will argue the case directly to the jury. e. Types of Courts i. High Court of Appeals-located in Albany, it is the highest court and the final point of appeal on civil and criminal cases. It is composed of a panel of seven judges, with a Chief Judge and six assistant judges. The full panel of seven justices will decide cases. In order to hear a case, the case must be referred to the court by one of the judges. Judges will be elected at large, every four years, during odd years, in accordance with Section IV. There will be fifteen candidates on the general election ballot; the top seven will win, with the overall winner becoming the Chief Judge. 1. The High Court of Appeals may nullify any action of the PAC or the President, but may not nullify popular proposals. ii. Appeals Courts-located in Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, and Yonkers. These courts hear appeals on civil and criminal matters from their respective districts. Each court will consist of six judges. Each case will be heard be three judge panels. Cases may be directly appealed from the county courts to Appeals Court. Judges will be elected every two years, during odd years, in accordance with Section IV. There will be twelve candidates on the general election ballot. The top six will be declared the winners. iii. County Courts- located in all 55 counties; these courts hear felony criminal cases and all civil cases. The number of judges varies based on the size of the county. The judges will be elected every two years, in odd years, in accordance with Section IV. The number of candidates on the general election ballot will be twice the number of seats available. The president will determine the number of judges in each county. iv. Local/Municipal courts are established by cities, towns, and villages, and are governed by their respective communities. They can hear misdemeanors and small claims cases. They may not sentence defendants to prison. (See section VI). These courts may refer a case to the county court if the presiding judge feels he or she is unable to hear it.
No religions that allow people to eat meat? No exterminators allowed in churches? So a police officer cannot stop someone doing a dine-and-dash? So antiaircraft weapons are OK for people living next to airports? And it's OK for a felon judged criminally insane to buy an AK-47? So you and your neighbor can secede? What does that mean? Do you stop paying taxes? Do you get shot as a foreign invader if you try to use the public roads? What does "inaction by the state" mean? Who gets which housing? Who gets the best food and clothing? Does everyone get the right to a penthouse apartment?
It would help if you would state the need first, and the solution. It's hard to work backwards from this kind of language. A few points to consider: (1) The Bill of Rights already covers some of what you're proposing. Some of the rest, like protection of cruelty against animals, is covered in statutes. I believe these are crimes against the state, so if you are from New York, your statute provides: A person who overdrives, overloads, tortures or cruelly beats or unjustifiably injures, maims, mutilates or kills any animal, whether wild or tame, and whether belonging to himself or to another, or deprives any animal of necessary sustenance, food or drink, or neglects or refuses to furnish it such sustenance or drink, or causes, procures or permits any animal to be overdriven, overloaded, tortured, cruelly beaten, or unjustifiably injured, maimed, mutilated or killed, or to be deprived of necessary food or drink, or who wilfully sets on foot, instigates, engages in, or in any way furthers any act of cruelty to any animal, or any act tending to produce such cruelty, is guilty of a class A misdemeanor and for purposes of paragraph (b) of subdivision one of section 160.10 of the criminal procedure law, shall be treated as a misdemeanor defined in the penal law. - (In some cases these will escalate to felonies.) (2) You've cast this as a state constitution. But no state law can deprive a person of the rights and liberties set forth in the US Constitution, nor can any state constitution trump the powers of the federal government set forth in the US Constitution. (3) After you filter your Brave New York constitution through (2) you will have to reconcile it with about 230 years of common law, beginning with all of the Supreme Court decisions related to civil rights and liberties, powers of the federal government, and rights and powers of the states. (4) A person can't prosecute a criminal charge. There is no such thing in law, since you can't get in front of a court without a cause of action. Only the violation of a criminal law can give rise to a criminal cause of action. And all criminal laws are offenses against the state or the US, usually brought as offenses "against the peace of New York, etc.". A murder isn't an offense against the victim, but against all citizens. Since "all citizens" can't fit in a courtroom and can't spend every day prosecuting every crime, the law provides a criminal procedure which has steps, like passage of the charge from the arresting officer to the office of the prosecutor who in some cases asked the judge for the arrest warrant, and there has to be a grand jury review beforehand, and finally an arraignment, which perfects the charge that will be tried. This process is designed to ensure that "all citizens" have actually been offended before the accused is placed in jeopardy. (5) Gun control is controversial. The Bill of Rights was allowing them expressly for the readiness of state militias, which became obsolete with the creation of the US Armed Forces. Unfortunately, there wasn't any connection made at the time with the present controversy, so no attempt was made to go back and fix the 2nd Amendment, to either make it clear that the right to bear arms is independent of the need to raise Armed Forces in defense of the US, or whether folks have the right to bear arms because they are defending themselves, or just for recreation. In any case, you can't trump Federal statutes and common law with a provision in a state constitution. Also you need to address the state statutes and common law concerning gun control as well. (6) In order to write a constitutional provision that confers a right, it has to be practical. If you say people have the right to something of value at no cost, but the act of acquiring something of value at no cost is made inherently impossible by the paradox between "value" and "free", then it simply can't be made to happen. As a consequence the provision is deemed defective and unenforceable. It's really quite amazing to see how carefully the framers coded the Constitution such that all of the Bill of Rights has been able to withstand 230 years of all kinds of changes in the world which otherwise would have rendered it unenforceable. Yet here it is, still kicking. That being said I would like to see a new Constitutional convention that once and for all settles some of the open questions that are driving the Right so far from everyone else, to include gun control but also to make the Civil Rights Act moot by incorporating the UN declaration of human rights, the right to abortion, the right to marriage between any consenting adults, a provision to establish for the knuckleheads of this country the legality of the income tax (a token provision, since it's already legal), to provide students and educators with the right of academic freedom, to strike down the support of political candidates by corporations and wealthy donors, to provide legal authority for the Chairman of the Fed to control his department without congressional interference, to strip Congress of its powers of appropriation, to eliminate the electoral college and institute a direct vote, and to require that all candidates for federal office, in any position that confers the power to enact laws or regulations, hold a PhD or equivalent in a field relevant to the office or committee charged with drafting the bill or regulation in question, and, finally, I would like to see meanness and stupidity stripped of all of its constitutional protections. I could go on but I'll stop here. (7) Note, you left out a lot of rights no one wants to lose. Habeas corpus, effective assistance of counsel, freedom from cruel and unusual punishment and the provisions of the 14th Amend. come to mind.
Ok, good points. I will say this, though, if a moneyless society happens, chances are there will be no more federal government, or the world will have changed alot from where it is now. That's why I made no mention of the federal government. Yes a few of the laws conflict directly with common law, but the reason I included "personal prosecution" is because what happens now when a cop kills somebody? Nothing. 95% of the time, the DA refuses to prosecute. This would give the victim's families an alternative. As far as the Bill of Rights section, thats incomplete. I need to add more to that. Anyway, any document like this needs to be reviewed by lots of people to make it better. One thing I changed was the President is given sovereign immunity from anybody below him. The only way to remove him from office is through impeachment by the people. It might not seem practical to gaurantee everybody free housing, healthcare, and food as a right, but without that, the whole reason for creating a moneyless society is pointless. So if you don't have that right, why bother with the whole thing to begin with?
The legacy of the FDA is one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century. It has resulted in safe and effective medicines and safe and healthy food; perhaps the biggest contributor to the doubling of life expectancy in that time. This would undo all of that. That's the dark(est) side of drug legalization.
