Proposed Constitution of the Third Republic

Preamble
We, the people of Libertatem, in order to form a more perfect regional union, do formally declare the Third Republic of Libertatem, established by this Constitution as composed by the Framers at the Convention called by the Eternal Premier and Father of the Republic Auxorii to assemble upon the fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty. In adoption of this Constitution, we reject the failed Consulate and do so establish a new Republic and a new Government in the name of Liberty. We create this Government in the hope that we might, with freedom as our cause, pave ourselves a new path forward, to liberty and justice for all.

Article I

Section I
The legislative authority of the Republic of Libertatem shall be vested in a Regional Assembly (henceforth referred to as the Assembly).
The Assembly shall consist of three elected representatives, chosen by the citizens of Libertatem in elections to occur in the months of January, May, and September.
Only citizens are eligible to be elected to the Assembly.
A candidate for election to the Assembly must receive a majority of all votes cast by citizens in their respective election in order to become a member of the Assembly, and these elections shall consist of polls lasting two days each.

Section II
The Assembly shall convene where and when instructed to by the President, unless the Assembly decides unanimously to convene on their own.
When convened, the Assembly shall have the responsibility to debate any proposed legislation that any member of the Assembly has written, or proposed legislation written by any other person in Libertatem that a member of the Assembly has elected to present for discussion.
Legislation that receives a majority vote in the Assembly is to be passed to the President for confirmation or veto; executive veto may be overridden by unanimous vote in the Assembly after rejection by the President of the proposed legislation.

Section III
The Assembly may initiate a vote of no confidence to dismiss the President. The President shall be removed from office and ineligible to return to the office of President for a period of twelve months, if the vote of no confidence received unanimous assent within the Assembly. In cases of a no confidence vote, the Assembly will always convene by its own authority.

Section IV
The Assembly may, in addition to any powers and responsibilities defined in other articles of this Constitution, pass by simple majority any and all bills and motions to:
Define, and alter the definitions of, criminal offenses;
Declare and end war;
Place limits on immigration;
Alter or repeal existing laws;
Place restrictions on the powers of the Executive and Judicial branches, beyond the limits imposed by this Constitution;
Establish and define regional holidays;
Create or amend binding rules affecting the operation of the Assembly itself;
and
Create and distribute honorary titles and other honors or awards.

Article II

Section I
The executive authority of the Republic of Libertatem shall be vested in a President, who shall be chosen by the citizens of Libertatem in elections to occur in the months of January and July.
Only citizens are eligible to become President.
A candidate for the Presidency must receive a majority of all votes cast by citizens in the Presidential Election in order to become President, and this election shall consist of a poll lasting three days.

Section II
The President shall:
be Commander-in-Chief of the Libertatem Armed Forces, and consequently shall have the power to create, disband, and mobilize the military of Libertatem as the President sees fit, provided the use of the military does not contradict any rights of the people of Libertatem nor attempts to utilize powers unavailable to the executive office.

have the authority to negotiate treaties with foreign powers, in whatever way and to whatever end they feel to be appropriate, provided such treaties do not contradict the rights of the people of Libertatem nor attempt to utilize powers unavailable to the executive office.

have the responsibility of defining the rules of citizenship and maintaining a record of extant citizens. No citizen shall lose their status as a citizen, nor be excluded from exercising their rights and/or the privileges granted to them by their station of citizenship, without due process of law.

have the authority to create executive offices by delegating to another citizen any powers available to the President, and may dismiss such offices at any time.
Any powers granted to an executive office are not available to the President until the office is dismissed.

preside over the Assembly and have the authority to call the Assembly to order and maintain decorum during Assembly proceedings, except those where the Assembly has elected to convene independently.

have the authority to veto legislation passed by the Assembly. This veto may be overridden by a unanimous vote in the Assembly.

Section III
The President may:
determine the Appearance of the region, including the layout and contents of the World Factbook Entry, and the appearance of the regional flag; and may appoint other individuals who shall share this ability with the President.

appoint a Vice-President who would act on behalf of the President when so instructed, and shall have any powers of those that the President has available and chooses to delegate to the Vice-President.
Any powers delegated to the Vice-President are not available to the President until the President revokes those powers.

initiate a vote of no confidence to dismiss the Assembly. All sitting members of the Assembly shall be removed from office and ineligible to return to the Assembly for a period of four months, if the vote of no confidence receives the assent of a majority of citizens who participated in the poll, which shall last for three days.

Article III

Section I
The judicial authority of the Republic of Libertatem shall be vested in a Supreme Court, which shall consist of one Regional Justice and one Judicial Secretary.
Only citizens are eligible to become Regional Justice and Secretary.

Section II
The Regional Justice shall be nominated by the President and must be confirmed unanimously by the Assembly.
The Secretary shall be chosen by the citizens of Libertatem in elections to occur in the month of September, in a poll lasting three days.

Section III
The Regional Justice shall have the responsibility to nominate through random selection, for every criminal trial brought before the court, a jury consisting of two anonymous citizens who are not already otherwise involved in the case, except in cases where the defendant has expressly stated their intentions to waive their right to trial by jury.
The Secretary shall have the responsibility to confirm or reject jurors nominated by the Regional Justice; to assess the validity of cases presented to the Court; and to issue warrants for search and/or seizure when so petitioned and probable cause can be demonstrated to the Secretary’s satisfaction.

Section IV
Any case to be brought to the Court must be presented to the Secretary, who shall assess the case and determine if the proposed offense is actionable by the Court. Any case so determined to be valid shall then be passed to the Justice, who shall arrange for that case to be argued.
Jurors that have been rejected by the Secretary must be immediately replaced with another nominee.
Jurors may not be rejected if no other individual is eligible to serve on the jury.

Section V
The Secretary shall nominate litigators:
One Attorney General who will represent the Government of Libertatem at court.
One Public Defender who will be obligated to represent any individual who does not expressly choose other representation or to represent themselves.
These nominees must each be confirmed by unanimous vote in the Assembly.

Section VI
In all criminal trials, except where the defendant has expressly stated their intentions to waive their right to trial by jury, the chosen jurors shall be presented to the legal representative for each party to the trial.
Each representative shall have the option to dismiss a juror for any reason, unless no other individuals are eligible to serve on the jury.
Dismissed jurors must be replaced immediately.

Section VII
The Regional Justice shall have the responsibility to adjudicate cases brought before the Supreme Court, determining the date and location of any trial and maintaining courtroom decorum as they see fit. They shall also have the authority to determine the punishment for an individual deemed by the jury to be guilty, and in cases where the defendant has waived their right to trial by jury shall also determine the verdict.

Article IV

Section I
The privilege of voting is exclusive to citizens of Libertatem.

Section II
Any individual may only hold one of the above-defined positions (including an executive office) at a time. In order for an individual currently in one such office to be elected or appointed to any other office, they must first resign or be removed from their office.

Section III
Any individual who already holds a government office and is nominated to another shall, if they accept the nomination, remain in their current office until such time as they resign or are confirmed to the new office, at which point they shall automatically vacate their prior position.

Section IV
If there are more than two candidates for any elected position and no one candidate receives a majority of votes, the two candidates with the most votes will compete in a runoff election.
The poll for this runoff election shall have half the duration as would a poll for a standard election to the office, and shall occur on the earliest date during which no election is otherwise scheduled.

Section V
If any elected office should become vacant, an emergency election shall be held no more than fourteen days after the office becomes vacant, unless a scheduled election for that position is due to occur within twenty-one days.
The poll for this emergency election shall have the same duration as would a poll for a standard election to the vacated office.

Section VI
If any appointed office (except for executive offices created by the authority of the President) should become vacant, a new candidate shall be nominated and confirmed at the earliest opportunity.

Article V

Section I
Official government business may be carried out in a Discord server, should the government so desire. The server must be publicly accessible and all legislative debate (except for debates on whether or not to consider a bill at all) and voting that occurs on Discord must take place in a public channel, as must all court sessions held on Discord. Judicial preliminary procedures including but not limited to jury selection and voir dire may be held in confidential channels.
Whichever Discord server the government chooses to operate within is the official Libertatem Discord Server, henceforth referred to simply as “the server”. The government may choose to operate in a different server at any time.

Section II
Any laws that apply to Libertatem apply also to the server. Crimes committed within the server shall be punished to the full extent of judicial authority.

Section III
Channels within the server may be made secret except to select roles or individuals. The Regional Justice and Secretary must have access to all channels.

Section IV
All persons holding an above-defined office shall be given roles within the server according to their office. The President and Vice-President, Regional Justice, and Secretary shall each receive a role unique to their office. Members of the Assembly will be assigned a collective role. All members of government will share a collective Government role in addition to any other roles they may have. Other distinguishing roles may be created or deleted at the discretion of any individual with the ability to do so.

Section V
If specialized channels should exist for any of the following:

The government generally
The Assembly’s private discussions on proposed legislation
The military
Jury activity and voir dire

then the following restrictions apply:

All members of government must have access to a generic government channel
All members of the Assembly must have access to an Assembly channel
The President and/or whomever has been delegated the President’s martial authority must have access to any and all military channels, as must the Vice-President.
Members of the military must have access to a military discussion channel regardless of their rank. Additional military discussion channels may be created and restricted to only higher-ranking individuals in the military.
Any channel involving jury activity may only ever be visible to the individuals directly involved in such activity, and only for as long as they are involved. No person may discuss activity that occurs in such a channel.
Any channel created for government use may not have its contents wholly expunged, nor may it be deleted unless an archive of the entirety of its contents exists and is moved to a replacement or archival channel.

Section VI
The server may not be deleted or otherwise intentionally rendered inaccessible for as long as the government of Libertatem elects to operate within it.
The server owner may appoint as many as two other administrators, who must swear an oath to uphold the secrecy of channels they would not otherwise have access to, and to refrain from using administrative abilities to delete messages or kick and/or ban users from the server except where otherwise permitted or required by law.

Section VII
All rights held by and privileges extended to residents and citizens of Libertatem apply also within the server.

Article VI
The Founder of Libertatem shall have no authority within the Government of Libertatem, but shall retain the powers fundamentally available to him such that they may be used in the defense of the region from foreign invasion.
The Delegate to the World Assembly on behalf of Libertatem shall have no authority within the Government of Libertatem, except for those powers associated with any other office to which they might have been elected or appointed.

Article VII
This Constitution shall be adopted upon receiving the assent of the majority of participating residents in a regional poll with a duration of one week.
Upon adoption of this Constitution, all elections shall be held at the earliest opportunity, even if this Constitution is not ratified within a month during which any elections are specified to occur. Individuals holding citizenship at the time of ratification shall remain citizens.
This Constitution may be amended by unanimous assent of the Assembly and President and the majority of participating non-government citizens in a regional poll; or by unanimous assent of participating non-government citizens in a regional poll.
The Bill of Rights shall not be amended to remove or in any way alter the eight original clauses as adopted with the ratification of the Constitution.
If, upon amendment, a later or newer part of the Constitution should conflict with earlier text, the newest part shall take precedence and invalidate that with which it conflicted, unless the conflict is with one of the eight original clauses of the Bill of Rights, in which case any new article that creates conflict shall be invalidated.

Bill of Rights

The Government of Libertatem shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging 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.

The Government of Libertatem, or any actor representing its authority, shall take no action to engage in unwarranted searches and seizures; and the Government shall issue no warrant except upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

All individuals have the right to trial by jury and to be represented in court by a litigator of their choosing.

No individual shall be subject to trial more than once for any offense, nor shall any individual convicted of a crime have their sentence increased in the absence of further criminal activity.

No individual shall be subject to prosecution for activities relating to the publicization of abusive or otherwise criminal activities undertaken by any member of government, nor of activities constituting a clear and present danger with regards to the security and liberty of Libertatem and/or its residents.

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

All powers not granted by this Constitution to the Government of Libertatem are, without exception, prohibited to it and reserved to the people.

The citizenry of Libertatem retains the right to call a referendum on any piece of legislation passed by the Assembly, and to overturn and invalidate it by a 75% supermajority of participating voters, regardless of whether the legislation has received executive assent. Upon a call by at least three citizens for such a referendum, a poll lasting five days shall begin at the earliest opportunity, but no later than seven days after the third call for referendum.