Individual Freedom and Responsibility

　　There are two sets of powers in any government. Though these powers may overlap in some areas like a Venn diagram, in others, these powers are mutually exclusive. They are the powers that may be exercised by the government, and the powers that may be exercised by the people.

　　All of those powers which may be exercised by the government are ceded to the government from the people by an agreement among the people in a society whose governing structure is supported by rational-legal legitimacy - a social contract. The people may decide which powers are ineffective on an individual basis, such as the power of national defense or the power to protect rights, and grant those powers on a collective basis to the government in order to ensure their effect.

　　The most important of these powers of government to the individual is the power to protect rights. We give this power to the government to avoid the tyranny of the strong over the weak, or the many over the few. We also limit the powers of the government to ensure that it does not then become that strong or majority force from which we sought to protect ourselves.

　　The more power we grant to the government, the less power we then have unto ourselves. The stronger we make the government, the weaker we become. The more we submit to government mandate, the less choice we have for ourselves. In a country where we claim liberty to be one of our most sacred rights, we ought to ensure that the government has as little power over our personal choices as is possible.

　　Therefore, the power of the government concerning the restriction of the behavior of its citizens ought to be extremely limited, and the responsibility for success should then be on the shoulders of each individual. The government should have no power to make our choices for us, for this inhibits our right to liberty and impairs our right to the pursuit of happiness. Because we are each unique, no universal set of solutions will ensure success on an individual basis. Because we each have different abilities, talents, needs, and desires, the government cannot effectively direct each of us on the best path to success. Neither have they the cognizance nor foresight - being a group of men themselves - to predict what set of solutions will effect an overall collective success, nor should we trust them to do so.

　　Given that the government has the power and responsibility to protect our rights and should have no power to interfere with our free will and an obligation to refrain from doing so, the government should avoid in all cases legislating on the basis of morality. This includes any perceived moral obligation to universal health care as well as to preserve the sanctity of marriage or any other one might name. In both the social and the moral, the government should allow for each of us to make our own decisions, our own successes, and our own failures, and it should hold each of us accountable to the consequences of those decisions. In this way, the government may ensure that each of us maintains completely our right to choice and our liberty.

Article I, Hypothetical New-World Constitution

Suppose that men have colonized some distant planet. This planet parallels Earth in almost every way, but there is no intelligent life. The men who have colonized this planet have broken or lost all contact with Earth and have set about attempting to create the best governing system for the thousands of colonists, expecting that someday, they will grow to a population of millions, perhaps even billions.

This is Article I of my attempt at a constitution to create this best governing system. I would appreciate any suggestions that might improve it. I have obviously borrowed quite a bit from the U.S. Constitution, as this is the system of government I am most familiar with. Many of the changes are similar to those I made in my Revised U.S. Constitution.

Edit: 1. Removed qualifications for office on the basis of age as proposed by Nelson Blaha.
2. Elaborated on the Lt. Governor's role as President of the Senate.

Article I. The Legislature.

Section 1. The legislative power of the State will be vested in a Congress of the State, which shall be divided into two Houses: a lower house, styled the Common Council, and an upper house, styled the Senate; and in a State Board of Education. The legislative power of the State shall be constrained to the powers herein enumerated and shall not be construed to extend to any powers not herein enumerated. All powers not delegated to the Congress of the State nor to the State Board of Education and not expressly prohibited to the same shall be reserved to the People and may be exercised by such inferior governments as may be ordained and established by the People.

Section 2a. The Common Council will be composed of no fewer than one hundred fifty members styled Councilor and elected by the People of the State at large. The People will propose for the ballot, in such manner as may be determined by law, a number of slates of candidates for the office of Councilor ranked in the order of preference. Each slate will list candidates equal in number to the number of seats on the Council, and each slate may be named according to the preferences of the People. Each person will cast his vote for one slate of candidates, and the most preferred candidates on each slate, according to their slate ranking and their proportion received of the popular vote, will be awarded seats on the Council.

2b. No person not having been a citizen of the State for less than seven years shall be eligible for the office of Councilor. No Councilor may hold any other office of honor, trust, or profit under the State. Councilors will serve terms of two years, and the whole of the Council shall stand for reelection every second year.

2b. The Council shall choose their Chairman and other officers and shall have the sole power of impeachment. The Common Council shall, before the first election of Senators only, be solely responsible for the enumeration of the first Census and for the creation of the first Senate districts. Until the first Senate is seated, the Common Council shall have no other power but to provide for the conduct of the first Census and to create the first Senate districts according to the articles herein.

Section 3a. The Senate will be composed of no fewer than fifty-five members styled Senator and elected by the People of single member districts apportioned by population. At the start of every period of ten years, there shall be conducted a Census in order to determine the total number of the population. Upon the conduct of the Census, the Senate districts shall be apportioned and district lines be drawn by act of Congress in order to ensure that the population is divided as equally as is possible among the several districts. Each person will cast his vote for one candidate, and the most preferred candidate in each district, according to the actual enumeration of the popular vote, will be awarded a seat in the Senate.

3b. No person not having been a citizen of the State and a resident of the district from which he will be elected for less than nine years shall be eligible for the office of Senator. No Senator may hold any other office of honor, trust, or profit under the State. The first Senate shall be divided as equally as possible into three classes. The first class shall serve two years, the second shall serve four, and the third shall serve six. Thereafter, Senators will serve terms of six years, and one-third of the Senate, divided as equally as possible, will stand for reelection every second year.

3c. The Lieutenant Governor shall by virtue of his office be President of the Senate, and shall have, when in Committee of the Whole, a right to debate and vote on all questions; and when the Senate is equally divided to give the deciding vote. The President shall decide all questions of order subject to appeal by any member. The President shall have control of such parts of the Capitol as have been or may be set apart for the use of the Senate and its officers. The President shall have the right to name a member to perform the duties of the chair, but such substitution shall not extend beyond such time as a majority of the Senators present vote to elect another member to preside, and if a majority of the Senators present so vote, the member called to the chair by the Lieutenant Governor or by the President pro tempore of the Senate shall vacate the chair, and the member elected by a majority shall preside until the Lieutenant Governor or President pro tempore shall take the gavel and preside.

3d. The Senate shall choose their officers and also a President pro tempore to serve in the absence of the Lieutenant Governor or when he shall exercise the office of Governor General. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the Governor General is tried, the Chief Justice of the Court of Review shall preside. No person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present.

3e. Judgment in the cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the State, but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment according to law.

Section 4a. The Board of Education will be composed of a number of members equal to the number of Senators. One member of the Board of Education will be elected from each of the Senate districts. Each person will cast his vote for one candidate, and the most preferred candidate in each district, according to the actual enumeration of the popular vote, will be awarded a seat on the Board of Education.

4b. No person not having been a citizen of the State and a resident of the district from which he will be elected for less than five years shall be eligible for the office of member of the Board of Education. No Board member may hold any other office of honor, trust, or profit under the State. The first Board of Education shall be divided as equally as possible into two classes. The first class shall serve two years, and the second shall serve four. Thereafter, Board members will serve terms of four years, and one half of the Board of Education, divided as equally as possible, will stand for reelection every second year.

Section 5. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for Councilors, Senators and members of the Board of Education, shall be prescribed by the Congress. Congress shall assemble for six months each year, and the session shall begin on such day as may be appointed by law.

Section 6a. Each house of Congress and the Board of Education shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business, but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties as each house and the Board may provide.

6b. Each house and the Board may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member.

6c. Each house and the Board shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting, in the case of Congress, such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy, and the ayes and nays of the members of either house or the Board on any question shall, at the desire of one fifth of those present, be entered on the journal.

6d. Neither house, during session of Congress, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting.

Section 7a. The Councilors, Senators, and members of the Board of Education shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the Treasury of the State. No law varying the compensation for the services of the Councilors, Senators, or Board members shall take effect until an election of Councilors shall have intervened.

7b. The Councilors, Senators, and members of the Board of Education shall in all cases, except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective houses, and in going to and returning from the same, and for any speech or debate in either house, they shall not be questioned in any other place.

Section 8a. Every bill not otherwise herein provided for, which shall have passed the Common Council and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the Governor General. If he approves, he shall sign it, but if not, he shall refer it with his objections to the Court of Review. If after such consideration of the Court, the bill is ruled to conform to the articles herein, it shall become law. If any bill shall not be referred to the Court by the Governor General within ten days, after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law in like manner as if he had signed it.

8b. Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the Common Council and the Senate may be necessary, except on a question of adjournment, shall be presented to the Governor General, and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be considered by the Court of Review, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill.

Section 9a. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the State, but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the State; To borrow money on the credit of the State only during such states of emergency as declared by a majority of members of the Common Council and approved by the majority of Senators and the Governor General; To regulate actual commercial transactions with foreign nations, within the State, and among semi-autonomous regions, but this power shall not be construed to extend to regulation of persons, objects, or activities unrelated to commerce merely for their potential involvement in future commercial transactions;

9b. To police the State and to establish uniform rules for the establishment, provision, and conduct of a system of law enforcement;

9c. To fix the standard of weights and measures; To establish post offices and post roads; And the sole power to coin money;

9d. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeals; To ensure that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the State, or any place subject to its jurisdiction; To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations; To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the State; To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the State; To secure for limited times to authors, inventors, and artists the exclusive right to their respective writings, discoveries, and works;

9e. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water; To provide and maintain a navy; To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces; To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the State, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, governing, and disciplining the militia; To exercise exclusive authority over all places purchased for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;

9f. To determine the size of the Common Council, the Senate, and the State high courts; And

9g. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by these articles in the government of the State, or in any department or officer thereof.

9h. The Board of Education shall have the power to regulate the curriculum, acceptable standards, requirements, and operations of the State system of education; To establish Independent School Districts with such power to provide for and regulate the education of its residents as determined by the Board of Education; To budget funds appropriated by the Congress for use by the Board of Education; To regulate the salaries and pensions of teachers and school administrators; And to make all regulations which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers.

Section 10a. Neither the Congress nor the Board of Education shall have moral authority, and shall pass no law or regulation which restricts the private action of the People, except to ensure that no individual may by actions infringe upon the rights of any other. The Congress shall have the power to ensure by law that the rights of the People are not infringed.

10b. The privilege of the writ of habeus corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed.

10c. No law shall be passed which establishes an official religion of the State or prohibits the free exercise of religion. No law shall be passed which abridges the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

10d. No law shall be passed which infringes upon the individual freedom of the People to keep and bear arms.

10e. No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. No law shall be passed which infringes upon the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, and no Warrants shall be issued but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

10f. No law shall be passed which infringes on the right of citizens of the State to vote on account of race, color, ethnicity, or gender, nor shall the right of citizens of the State, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote be denied or abridged. No law shall be passed which infringes upon the right of citizens of the State to vote in any primary or other election for by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

10g. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular Statement and account of receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time.

10h. No title of nobility shall be granted by the State: and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign State.

10i. No citizen of the State having attained to the age of five years and having not attained to the age of nineteen years shall be denied access to the State education system, nor shall they be denied equal opportunity to education; No citizen of the State shall be denied access to a school based solely on residency within its Independent School District; No Independent School District shall be unequally funded on the basis of revenue from taxes within its boundaries in support of the State education system.