Constitution of Liberty

We the Citizens of the Free Nation, in order to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Free Nation as its supreme law, deriving its just authority from the law of nature and the consent of the governed.

Part One

Provisions Subject to Amendment

1.1 The Government of the Free Nation

1.1.1 The Government of the Free Nation shall consist of a Federal Administration and a number of Virtual Cantons.

1.1.2 If the territory of the Free Nation is held on a long-term lease from another nation, the contracting lessee shall be the Federal Administration.

1.1.3 The Citizens of the Free Nation shall be any persons who, being competent, shall have signed and assented to this Constitution.

Citizenship carries with it the right to vote and eligibility for public office, which are denied to non-Citizens; it carries with it also the liability to taxation by the Federal Administration and by the Citizen's Virtual Canton, from which liability non-Citizens are exempt. Thus the Government of the Free Nation is a voluntary cooperative association, with free exit and entry, and taxation is thus likewise voluntary, being conditional on Citizenship. Citizens may renounce their Citizenship at any time, and reclaim it later as they choose.

No competent person shall be barred from Citizenship. Criminal conviction shall not remove the rights, nor public office the responsibilities, of Citizenship.

1.1.4 Every Citizen shall have the right to launch a popular initiative calling for a national referendum to recall the President of the Free Nation or any member of the Negative Council, or to repeal any law, practice, or policy of the Government, exclusive of the provisions of this Constitution, by majority vote; a petition by not fewer than n1 citizens shall be sufficient to establish the referendum.

1.1.5 The Federal Administration shall consist of a Legislature, an Executive, and a Judiciary.

1.2 The Federal Legislature

1.2.1 The Legislature shall be composed of two houses: the Parliament, and the Negative Council.

1.2.2 The Parliament shall be composed of Citizens representing the Virtual Cantons. Each Virtual Canton, regardless of size, shall send exactly one representative to the Parliament. These Members of Parliament are to be chosen in accordance with the laws of the respective Virtual Cantons. Each Member of Parliament shall serve a seven-year term; no Member of Parliament may serve more than one term consecutively or three terms non-consecutively. Members of Parliament may be recalled in accordance with the laws of the relevant Canton.

1.2.3 The Negative Council shall be composed of Citizens representing the Citizens of the Free Nation. There shall be one Councillor for every n2 Citizens. Half of these Councillors, the Councillors by Election, are to be chosen by majority (or plurality) vote of the Citizens. The other half, the Councillors by Lot, are to be selected randomly from a pool of all Citizens willing to serve. These two kinds of Councillor shall have identical voting rights. Each Councillor shall serve a seven-year term; no Councillor may serve more than one term consecutively or three terms non-consecutively. Councillors of either sort may be recalled by national referendum as detailed in 1.1.4.

1.2.4 The Parliament shall have the power to initiate legislation by a two-thirds vote; such legislation must then be approved by a two-thirds vote of the Negative Council. Every bill which shall have passed the Parliament and the Negative Council shall, before it become a law, be presented to the Executive; if at least two of the Presidents approve it they shall sign it and it shall become law, but if not the Executive shall return it with their objections to the Parliament, which shall proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration four-fifths of the Parliament shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the Negative Council, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by four-fifths of the Negative Council, it shall become a law.

Any bill, before it may become a law, must embrace no more than one subject, which shall be expressed in its title; appropriation bills shall concern only spending of monies and shall not mandate any other action or conduct, nor shall any bill except a general budget bill contain more than one item of appropriation, and that for one expressed purpose.

In the case of bills that contain spending appropriations, the Executive may exercise a line-item veto, signing some provisions into law and sending back others with objections to the Parliament.

If any bill shall not be returned by the Executive within fourteen days after it shall have been presented to them, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if they had signed it, unless the Legislature by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law.

The Parliament shall also have power to propose Amendments to this Constitution as detailed in Section 2.1.

1.2.5 The Negative Council shall have no power to initiate legislation, but shall have, in addition to the power of vetoing proposed Federal legislation, the power to repeal any already existing Federal legislation. A one-third- plus-one vote in favor of repeal shall be sufficient to repeal the legislation; no executive review is required. The Negative Council shall also have power to pass judgment on proposed Amendments to this Constitution as detailed in Section 2.1.

1.2.6 Each of the two houses of the Legislature shall regulate its own affairs, determine its own rules of procedure, and choose its own officers, including its President.

1.2.7 The powers of the Legislature shall be restricted to the following provisions:
 * 1) a) to protect the rights of the people to their persons and property;
 * 2) b) to conduct the financial affairs of the Federal Administration;
 * 3) c) to lay and collect taxes on Citizens of the Free Nation, for the purpose of paying the debts and providing for the common defense of the Free Nation, and likewise to solicit voluntary contributions to the Treasury, or to provide services such as lotteries to that end;
 * 4) d) to declare war in defense of the Free Nation, and to make peace, and to raise and support a military force;
 * 5) e) to provide for calling forth a militia to execute the laws of the nation, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions;
 * 6) f) to vest the appointment of such officers whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Federal law, in the Executive or in the Judiciary, as the Legislature deems proper;
 * 7) g) to impeach any Federal officer;
 * 8) h) to exercise an extraordinary power, for a period of no more than n3 years immediately following the adoption of this Constitution, to regulate or prohibit the importation or exportation of mind-altering drugs, or the manufacture, importation, and exportation of large-scale chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons, but only insofar as and solely to the extent that such regulation or prohibition is necessary in order to avert a severe risk to the Free Nation of suffering foreign invasion.
 * 9) i) to make such laws as shall be necessary for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the Federal Administration, or in any department or officer thereof, provided that no law imposing greater restrictions on the people than needed for the attainment of this end shall be regarded as necessary.

1.2.8 The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended; no bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed.

1.2.9 No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by Federal law; and statements and accounts of the receipts and expenditures of the Federal Administration shall regularly be made public.

1.2.10 The average Federal tax burden shall rise no higher than n4 percent of the average Citizen's income, this figure to be determined or approximated by statistical methods involving no compulsory disclosure of information on the part of Citizens.

Part Two

Provisions Not Subject to Amendment

2. 1 Provision for Amendments

2.1.1 The Legislature, whenever four-fifths of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution (a process to be initiated by a four-fifths vote of the Parliament, and confirmed by a four-fifths vote of the Negative Council), which Amendments shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of this Constitution when ratified by both four-fifths of the Virtual Cantons (to be determined as the laws of the individual cantons shall direct) and two-thirds of the Citizens, provided that no Amendment shall in any manner affect Part Two of this Constitution.

2.1.2 All Amendments shall collectively constitute Part Three of this Constitution; the Legislature shall have the power to enforce any Amendment by appropriate legislation, so far as such power is consistent with those provisions of the Constitution not subject to Amendment.

2. 2 Bill of Rights

2.2.1 The following protections of rights shall be binding upon the Virtual Cantons and all branches of the Federal Administration. Public officials and government employees possess no special rights, immunities, or exemptions not possessed by other Citizens; nor shall crimes against the Government of the Free Nation or its officers be labeled "treason," or regarded as more serious than crimes against other organizations or individuals. Moreover, apart from the rights of suffrage, referendum initiative, and the holding of public office under the Constitution of the Free Nation, which are reserved to Citizens alone, the following rights apply to all persons equally, regardless of Citizenship or residency, with the qualification that persons judged incompetent (e.g., young children, or the mentally ill) may have their rights suspended in order to secure those ends to which, so far as can be established, they would be likely to consent if competent; but such persons retain in full force, as do others acting on their behalf, the right to challenge in court their status as incompetent no less often than once a year, and to sue for false judgment. Every person of the age of n13 or greater shall be assumed competent, and every person under the age of n13 shall be assumed incompetent, until proven otherwise in a Federal court. The standard of evidence necessary to prove incompetence shall be higher than the standard of evidence necessary to prove competence.

2.2.2 The laws of the Free Nation shall apply equally to all persons regardless of gender, ethnicity, opinions, religion, national origin, or peaceful lifestyle.

2.2.3 No law shall abridge the right of each person to do as he or she chooses with his or her own person and property, so long as he or she does not interfere, by force or fraud (or the threat thereof), with the equal right of others to do as they choose with their own persons and property.

2.2.4 No law shall abridge the right of persons to the peaceful control of their own bodies, nor interfere with voluntary consensual or contractual relations among persons, or the right to form cooperative ventures of any kind; nor invade the privacy of peaceful persons, nor by confiscation, expropriation, regulation, redistribution, restriction, control, or any other means abridge the right of any person to acquire property by homestead, purchase, or gift, or to use, control, exchange, lease, sell,ransfer, bequeath, dispose of, or in any manner enjoy, their property without interference, until and unless the exercise of their control infringes the freedom of others; nor shall private property be fully or partially taken for public use without the consent of, and mutually agreeable compensation to, the owner.

2.2.5 No law shall create a class of victimless or consensual crimes.

2.2.6 No law shall abridge the right of freedom of association; any person may associate or transact with any other person or refuse to associate or transact with any other person for any reason, and the proprietor or lawful possessor of any movable or immovable property may exclude or refuse admission to any other person, except where such property is being used to violate the rights of others.

2.2.7 No law shall abridge the freedom of thought and feeling, or their peaceful expression or dissemination, as in speech, press and other media, artistic depiction, or religious practice; nor shall any law be made to promote or hinder religion, artistic culture, scientific research, or communication; nor shall the Government of the Free Nation operate or support any school, college, or university.

2.2.8 No law shall abridge the right of the people peaceably to assemble, or to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

2.2.9 No law shall countenance the existence of slavery, conscription, indenture, or any other form of involuntary servitude within the Free Nation, or in any place subject to its jurisdiction.

2.2.10 No law shall restrict or hamper the free and peaceful movement of persons, goods, or ideas within or across the borders of the Free Nation.

2.2.11 No law shall abridge the right of any person to use or issue any commodity or item as currency; nor shall the Government of the Free Nation engage in monetary regulation or issue of any sort.

2.2.12 No law shall abridge the right of self-defense by victims or their agents against initiators of aggression (including governments or their agents), including the right, to own, manufacture, sell, and bear arms; but the right of self-defense shall not be construed to license resistance on the part of such aggressors to the legitimate use of force against them in defense of the rights of their victims.

2.2.13 No law shall establish occupational licensure, nor make or claim grants of monopoly privilege, nor restrict competition or free entry into any profession or industry, including the services of adjudication, protection, and enforcement of legitimate rights.

2.2.14 No person shall be convicted for violating government secrecy classifications unless the government discharges its burden of proving that the publication violated the right of privacy of those who have been coerced into revealing confidential information to government agents, or disclosed defensive military plans so as to materially impair the capability to respond to attack; but it shall be a valid defense to such prosecution that information divulged shows that the government has violated the law.

2.2.15 Any owner or owners of land may secede with their property from the jurisdiction of the Free Nation, whereupon their territory shall become a sovereign independent state in accordance with international law.

2.2.16 The enumeration in this Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

2.2.17 The powers not delegated to the Federal Administration by this Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the Virtual Cantons, are reserved to the Cantons respectively, or to the people.

2.2.18 The existence of a state of emergency shall not be construed to limit the individual rights, or to expand the governmental powers, herein enumerated.

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