SB 2016-041 - Safegraud the Integrity of Our Institutions Act (Passed Senate)

[Clyde1998]

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Sponsor - Representative Siren (Ind)

I open up a period of debate on this bill.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

So it looks like we may have missed something...

I support this bill and anticipate a final vote if there is no debate or amendments.

[Clyde1998]

I propose the following amendment.

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[Associate Justice PiT]

     I support the amendment, since it makes the law more specific. Atlasia is small enough that it is hard for the SoFE to avoid everything that could conceivably be construed as a conflict of interest and therefore be litigated.

[Clyde1998]

The amendment has been adopted. Unless there are any objections or any further debate, I will open this up to a final vote in 24 hours.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Clyde's amendment is definitely a step in the right direction; however, I'd like to reiterate what Blair said during the debate in the House of Representatives regarding Section 3:

3.1 doesn't actually codify anything into law, it just suggests formally that they should do something already expected.

3.2 I'm skeptical of allowing judges to force another judge off the court, but something clearly needs to done to fix this. I'm much more in favour in banning sitting Justices from running for elected office

[Clyde1998]

I propose this. I want to look at legal binding ways to prevent a Justice from sitting on a case that directly involves them though.

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[Associate Justice PiT]

     I'm tepid on the idea of barring Justices from running for office.

[Senator Cris]

     I'm tepid on the idea of barring Justices from running for office.

[Clyde1998]

Just to get this rolling again, I propose that we vote on the amendment that I put forward.

[Clyde1998]

I open up a vote on this amendment.

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[LLR]

Nay. It's a poor idea. The second part is fine, but given how hard it is to fill positions here sometimes, we're gonna need some elder statesmen to run (that's what justices are, basically). It'll als totally de-incentivize being on the Supreme Court.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

After some consideration, I'm voting Nay, mainly for the reasons LLR raised.

[Leinad]

Nay, for the reasons LLR raised that Scott echoed.

[Clyde1998]

I shall withdraw the amendment

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I would recommend one last review for any potential conflicts, legalistic or constitutional in nature that might remain, then proceeding if nothing remains of concern.

[LLR]

Are we ready to vote? Anyone have qualms?

[Leinad]

Are we ready to vote? Anyone have qualms?

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I'm not comfortable with the present definition of a "conflict of interest," which is exceedingly vague and therefore vulnerable to abuse from multiple angles. Given the sorts of accusations that were leveled during the late campaign, I'm worried that this could be used to pillory an innocent man - or, conversely, manipulated to allow a corrupt official to remain in power despite obvious abuses.

[LLR]

Here is my thought on defining "conflict of interest"

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[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

That's definitely a step in the right direction. My only concern is that the current phrasing would require a petitioner under 3.2 to demonstrate that a "partisan or personal bias" actually prevents a justice from fulfilling their role as an impartial arbitrator. It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to prove that. I suggest the amendment be amended to read "partisan or personal biases could reasonably prevent... ," which is much more clear from a legal standpoint.

[Leinad]

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This work?

[Leinad]

^That's an official amendment that will shortly become the bill barring objection, just to be clear.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

That is excellent; thank you, Leinad.

[Leinad]

I'll open a vote on this tonight unless someone objects.