The Imperial Dominion of the South's Legislature

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Alright, here is what I have. Renumbering will probably be needed to fit it into the standing rules. Comment would be appreciated:

1. It shall be the responsibility of the Speaker of the Legislature to maintain a schedule of upcoming bills.

2. The Speaker of the Legislature shall give each newly proposed bill a place in the schedule, which may not be directly altered after that space has been selected.

3. The current schedule shall be made available to any citizen of the Southeast on request.

4a. At any point when a bill is open for debate, the Lt. Governor may express his/her opposition to it and decline to open a final vote on that bill.

4b. If 48 hours pass after a quorum of the Legislature agrees to end debate without the final vote being opened, the Lt. Governor shall be considered to be in opposition to it.

5. Should the Lt. Governor be in opposition to a bill, any Legislator may motion for the power to open a final vote.

6. Any petitioning Legislator shall be empowered to open the final vote on a bill if three-quarters of sitting Legislators support the motion for the power to open a final vote.

[Associate Justice PiT]

The rest of the legislature should be able to vote to move up or down a bill's place in the schedule, provided a majority of legislators votes to do so.

     Sounds fine, as long as such votes are conducted separately from the legislature's regular business. Otherwise it could become much too distracting.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Updated version based on Deldem's suggestion. Eliminated the sub-sectioning, since it is not really necessary here:

1. It shall be the responsibility of the Speaker of the Legislature to maintain a schedule of upcoming bills.

2. The Speaker of the Legislature shall give each newly proposed bill a place in the schedule, which may not be directly altered after that space has been selected.

3. Any Legislator may at any time motion to alter the order of bills in the schedule. The motion shall be voted on in a thread separate from that used for ordinary legislative business and shall pass if a majority of Legislators vote in the affirmative.

4. The current schedule shall be made available to any citizen of the Southeast on request.

5. At any point when a bill is open for debate, the Lt. Governor may express his/her opposition to it and decline to open a final vote on that bill. If 48 hours pass after a quorum of the Legislature agrees to end debate without the final vote being opened, the Lt. Governor shall be considered to be in opposition to it.

6. Should the Lt. Governor be in opposition to a bill, any Legislator may motion for the power to open a final vote.

7. Any petitioning Legislator shall be empowered to open the final vote on a bill if three-quarters of sitting Legislators support the motion for the power to open a final vote.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Well we have to pass this as a bill. How about somebody introduces it & we return to Deldem's bill in the meantime?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Well we have to pass this as a bill. How about somebody introduces it & we return to Deldem's bill in the meantime?

I would, but i can't

     Alright, I can go ahead & do it. I just find it sort of humorous that I am introducing far more bills now than I ever did as Senator.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     This is the bill to amend the standing rules, right? Anyway, aye.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I was thinking of this for an amendment to the Food For Thought Bill:

Replace the current text of section 3 with:

3. Failure to comply shall result in:

3a. A $250 fine for a first-time offense.

3b. A $2,500 fine for a second-time offense.

3c. Forfeiture of any sales made without aforementioned information being available for a third-time offense.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Well I am interested in Deldem's thoughts on the matter, since I need someone else in the legislature to support the amendment.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Well I am interested in Deldem's thoughts on the matter, since I need someone else in the legislature to support the amendment.

I guess we have to wait for him

Sorry guys, I wasn't able to get on at all yesterday.
I'm fine with the tiered punishments, but I think a nominal fine should be attached to the first offense, since this really is basic information.

     I edited the post with the amendment to include a $250 fine for a first-time offense. How does that sound?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I sent him a PM. I am not sure what's going on.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Aye on the bill & the amendment.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I think the idea of creating an office of Southeastern Attorney General is pretty novel. Given the frequency with which our region is sued, having someone designated to argue cases on our behalf would be quite helpful. The only issue I can see is that it might be difficult to find someone willing to do the job given the region's low population.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I think the idea of creating an office of Southeastern Attorney General is pretty novel. Given the frequency with which our region is sued, having someone designated to argue cases on our behalf would be quite helpful. The only issue I can see is that it might be difficult to find someone willing to do the job given the region's low population.

I share these concerns. Perhaps we could have an existing office be in charge of what we would give to the AG instead, though that might be a bit overwhelming.

However, the rest of the bill is quite good.

     The appeal of having a separate office for it is that whoever takes on the job is fully interested in taking care of its duties. If we were to, say, place that responsibility on the Governor, we could lose out on capable persons who would like to be Governor but not want to have to represent the region whenever it is prosecuted.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I think the idea of creating an office of Southeastern Attorney General is pretty novel. Given the frequency with which our region is sued, having someone designated to argue cases on our behalf would be quite helpful. The only issue I can see is that it might be difficult to find someone willing to do the job given the region's low population.

I share these concerns. Perhaps we could have an existing office be in charge of what we would give to the AG instead, though that might be a bit overwhelming.

However, the rest of the bill is quite good.

     The appeal of having a separate office for it is that whoever takes on the job is fully interested in taking care of its duties. If we were to, say, place that responsibility on the Governor, we could lose out on capable persons who would like to be Governor but not want to have to represent the region whenever it is prosecuted.

That's true, but I think getting somebody to be AG would be tough. I just don't see there being any sort of contesting of an election for that, and it might be tough to find somebody at all.

Though I guess if we got sued a bit less it might be a bit easier to find someone

     It's a shame that most of Atlasia's legalistic types have fallen into inactivity. I can think of some folks who would probably love to be SE AG, were they more active.

     But then we would not have any use for such a position. Quite the paradox, isn't it?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Aye.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I just noticed that 1.5 is missing a fairly critical word in there. I imagine that word is supposed to be "failure"? While we're at it, it might be a good opportunity to specify the amount of the fine & the privileges that are lost.

[Associate Justice PiT]

So wait, we have an elected Attorney General now? Shouldn't that just have been delegated to the governor? I miss initiatives

     The issue with making the Governor do it was that it would probably scare off many potential candidates for Governor in the future. I for one know that I would never want to be in an office that would obligate me to argue cases.

     Anyway, we still have an apparatus of the initiative system in place. If that is your only issue with the recently passed bill, feel free to propose an initiative to repeal the section establishing the new office.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Looking at it some more, 1.5 & 1.6 seem redundant. I think we could just refer to the punishment in 1.3. Additionally, funding of police agencies is a local affair & should only be punished by the fine. However, if we have a regional police agency then I think that it would make sense to punish them by depriving them of their funding.

     Furthermore, 1.4 should specify how much jail time. I'd suggest 6 months to a year for negligent failure to report & 4 years to 10 years for intentional failure to report. I would like to hear from my colleagues as well as the Lt. Governor on all of these issues, at any rate.

Nah, not that big of a deal, I just miss initiatives. In fact, I think I might propose a few myself just for old time's sakes.

Oh, and btw, on the sexual crimes law, that list of definitions should probably match the wording of the Georgia Code 16-6 offenses, for what it's worth. We do use the Georgia code where our own law doesn't supersede it.

     It might be interesting to hold informal referenda on the Legislature's actions to see what the general public (both Southeastern & non-Southeastern) thinks of our actions. Abysmal turnout would probably lead to it showing that the in-region voters always agree with us, though.

     I'll look it up & propose an amendment based on it. I should get around to it later today.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Nah, not that big of a deal, I just miss initiatives. In fact, I think I might propose a few myself just for old time's sakes.

Oh, and btw, on the sexual crimes law, that list of definitions should probably match the wording of the Georgia Code 16-6 offenses, for what it's worth. We do use the Georgia code where our own law doesn't supersede it.

     It might be interesting to hold informal referenda on the Legislature's actions to see what the general public (both Southeastern & non-Southeastern) thinks of our actions. Abysmal turnout would probably lead to it showing that the in-region voters always agree with us, though.

     I'll look it up & propose an amendment based on it. I should get around to it later today.

I'm willing to bet most Southeasterners don't check this thread at all. See the latest election results, two candidates running?

     Which happens to be the problem with such a proposition. We'd probably get the Legislators, the Lt. Governor, the Governor, the Senator, & maybe somebody else to vote. If anything, it would be interesting to see what national perception is of the Legislature's actions.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     When was the existing law passed?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     When was the existing law passed?

The existing Georgia law was originally passed in 1996, focusing only on those who committed sexual offenses against children, and then substantially modified in 2006 to include those who committed sexual offenses against adults as well.  As I recall, we use the Georgia Code 2006 as our baseline, tho I could only find the Georgia Code 2009 online.

     Alright, I am content with the existing law & would like to withdraw the bill. Unfortunately, we don't have any bills in the pipeline currently.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Our seats are not up for a vote in this election, but we don't have any legislation to discuss currently. I'm not sure it really matters whether we recess or not.

     Abstain.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Our seats are not up for a vote in this election, but we don't have any legislation to discuss currently. I'm not sure it really matters whether we recess or not.

     Abstain.

Well, The Governor and Lt. Governor are up for election. So i want to focus on re-election

     Ah, well that's fine. If a bill comes up, we could still organize some form of informal discussion of it.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     It seems like we have a solid core of me & Deldem, but finding a third person to complete the Legislature is proving rather difficult. I suppose it is just as well that the order of the Legislature does not become too entrenched.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     It seems like we have a solid core of me & Deldem, but finding a third person to complete the Legislature is proving rather difficult. I suppose it is just as well that the order of the Legislature does not become too entrenched.

Well that didn't last long. Maybe you should auction the third seat on Ebay. 

     Or the Governor could appoint Giovanni, who is evidently interested.