SENATE STANDING COMMITTEE: Judiciary (Check and Balances Amendment)

[President Tyrion]

I found you guys myself

Hm, well the short and sweet explanation is simple: citizens should be involved in the process. Atlasia is a special case and is not particularly comparable to the USA in the respect that its citizens are acutely aware of the goings on in the government. Operating under the assumption that people dislike the current insulated nature of the Supreme Court (and you may disagree, but I sense that quite a few people believe that some change is in order), the change I propose is to include citizens in the process while keeping the main structure of the SC intact. Naturally, the power of the Justices is diminished, but the honor of the position is not. Justices would still be required to both oversee cases and rule on cases in which there is the possibility of political motivations.

Like the original constitution, I left much to the courts, but I would advise that in the case this system is used, Justices should use extreme caution in granting appeals. I would readily assume that if Justices were too loose with granting appeals, the SC's workload would bloat. Hearing every case twice would be untenable.

I am flexible on the number of jurors/People's Court Adjudicators. On second thought, 13 may be too many.

Any questions?

[President Tyrion]

Who would randomly select members and how?

I gave that responsibility to the Supreme Court, and I worded it in a manner that would allow their discretion. Basically, the SC can determine who would be "qualified."

[President Tyrion]

Do you think more public involvement would politicize the cases?

That thought is very high on my mind. In a perfect world, the jurors would have a firm understanding of the politics while being partial. Of course, that's impossible. I would say that the SC could vet candidates, looking for professionalism. However, there's no doubt that some cases could get hairy, and that's why the appellate process exists. If the system were to get too political, the SC could always step in.

[President Tyrion]

If someone was to argue that adding another layer to the court system was less than ideal in a game such as this, how would you respond to that critique?

I think my response would depend on the specific nature of the argument. If complexity is the issue, I would argue that an appellate process is fairly straightforward, and, judging by the amount of future/current lawyers on the site, would not cause undue difficulty to understand.

If you're worried about increasing the time frame of cases, you would be technically right. It'll probably take longer to resolve the cases, but I think the increase in activity and citizen participation is more than worth it.

[President Tyrion]

Any other questions? I'm always happy to answer via PM as well

[President Tyrion]

I don't really have a strong opinion on it, but I would vote on it if I were senator, since I want the people to have the last word.

But, as I won't be when this reach the floor...

Well, I understand your position from a procedural standpoint, but, as a citizen, what is your opinion? At this stage in the process, there's a lot of time for change, so if you see anything glaring, now's your chance!

[President Tyrion]

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I like the thought of getting citizens more involved in the game and this amendment would clearly do that. On the other hand, I could see a scenario where a case comes up and has an unpopular but legally clear answer to it and by bypassing the Court we create a narrative of the people speaking the other way loudly enough that a SC who may rule correctly otherwise does not find within it the impetus to take and overrule the will of the people. This is what judicial review is all about.

Well, I wouldn't want to tread on the toes of the SC to determine what that impetus might be, but I think most, if not all, such situations would be avoided if the SC set a low burden of proof for determining partiality. After all, the justice presiding over the case would see the evidence and know the constitutionality at work, so it would be difficult for me to fathom a situation in which the Justice wouldn't be able to justify taking an appeal having heard all the facts already.

[President Tyrion]

Would the other members be interested in bringing in some outside legal opinions on the matter, the implications and so forth?

I feel like non-committee members tend to ignore us

[President Tyrion]

Would the other members be interested in bringing in some outside legal opinions on the matter, the implications and so forth?

I feel like non-committee members tend to ignore us

It doesn't help that the knife is presently at the throat of the system itself. Kinds of discourages attenativeness.

No doubt that's part of the problem! To be fair, I'm not a fan of committees in this format, but this purgatory is much, much worse than being fully alive or fully dead.

[President Tyrion]

I'm bumping this thread. I'd like to hear opinions from all Senators (and Fmr. Senator MaxQue) on this, so I can work on perhaps amending the proposal to align with your concerns.

[President Tyrion]

This committee no longer exists. I would recommend PMing them directly and then maybe discussing some of it here by mutual agreement. But just posting anything in here isn't going to compell much attention now, not that it did before anyway.

Cripes... Ok, will do