Adding States Amendment

[Emsworth]

Adding States Amendment
The following clause is added to Article IV, Section 2 of the Constitution:

6. The Senate may by law admit new States to the Republic of Atlasia. The Senate may apportion this State to a Region and a District via proper legislation; however, the State shall still be liable to all the provisions of this Section and Section 4 of this Article.

Sponsor: Sen. MasterJedi

[Sam Spade]

This seems very confusing and open to weird interpretations. 

What is a state?  How does a territory become a state?  How does one make a non-territory a state (probably a goal of the author of this amendment)?

Unless I'm missing something, there seems to be problems with this to me.

[Emsworth]

This seems very confusing and open to weird interpretations. 

Not as I see it. I wrote this amendment on Sen. MasterJedi's request (although I do not support it). The U.S. Constitution uses almost exactly the same language:

"New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union."

The language of the proposed amendment, as you can see, is practically identical, except for the change from passive to active voice. It just allows the Senate to admit new states by law, i.e., by statute, just as the U.S. Congress may do now.

The other part of the Amendment allows the Senate to apportion states to regions and districts, subject to the population rules for the latter.

[Sam Spade]

This seems very confusing and open to weird interpretations. 

Not as I see it. I wrote this amendment on Sen. MasterJedi's request (although I do not support it). The U.S. Constitution uses almost exactly the same language:

"New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union."

The language of the proposed amendment, as you can see, is practically identical, except for the change from passive to active voice. It just allows the Senate to admit new states by law, i.e., by statute, just as the U.S. Congress may do now.

The other part of the Amendment allows the Senate to apportion states to regions and districts, subject to the population rules for the latter.

Fair enough.

[7,052,770]

This is a great bill that we need to move swiftly through the Senate.

[Gabu]

No questions from me.  Seems pretty sensible for laying the groundwork in case we ever want to admit something as a state.

[Emsworth]

Just to note, the current Constitution already has a clause under which any state that is admitted to the United States is also automatically admitted to Atlasia, without need for Senate action. This would allow the Senate to admit Puerto Rico, etc., even though these have not been admitted by the real-life U.S.

[MasterJedi]

Just to note, the current Constitution already has a clause under which any state that is admitted to the United States is also automatically admitted to Atlasia, without need for Senate action. This would allow the Senate to admit Puerto Rico, etc., even though these have not been admitted by the real-life U.S.

That doesn't include Canada which has come up in the past. (Though we can only push for it and hope the Canadians allow for plebescites) And also what if the US doesn't want to admit Puerto Rico or my old Pacifican Statehood Act, what then? This gives Atlasia more power over what we want done.

[Peter]

This is just an excuse to admit Canada to our union (completely ridiculous) - there needs to be a check on the power of the Senate to endlessly add new States to our Union in my opinion.

[MasterJedi]

This is just an excuse to admit Canada to our union (completely ridiculous) - there needs to be a check on the power of the Senate to endlessly add new States to our Union in my opinion.

Besides the Canadian and Pacifican ones I'm not going to submit anymore bills that would add states. (We own the pacific islands and a majority of the people in the last poll supported Canada).

[MAS117]

This is just an excuse to admit Canada to our union (completely ridiculous) - there needs to be a check on the power of the Senate to endlessly add new States to our Union in my opinion.

I urge all Senators to vote against MasterJedis imperalist bill. Masterjedi, why is it that all you have tried to do in the Senate is admit states, such as Puerto Rico, and other Pacific Islands, from which NO ONE in Atlasia is actually from?

[7,052,770]

just because you don't want to admit any new states now doesn't mean that we may never want to.  This power is a good thing for the senate to have.  Obviously there's no suport to just annex Canada, so the Senate would defeat that.  But if there ever were popular sentiment and need to make a new state, the senate would already have the power.
There is absolutely NO reason to be against this.

[Siege40]

Obviously there's no suport to just annex Canada...

...I want to annex Canada. And it isn't really historical annexation, more like a redefinition of Atlasia.

Siege

[DanielX]

Why not? My only complaint is that too many socialist provinces might enter Atlasia before they are sufficiently tainted by bourgeious capitalism-consumerism .

[Sam Spade]

For the record, I will oppose this bill as I have opposed all relevant pieces of legislation before that mirror the above.

[7,052,770]

For the record, I will oppose this bill as I have opposed all relevant pieces of legislation before that mirror the above.

that's a silly attitude

[Siege40]

Why not? My only complaint is that too many socialist provinces might enter Atlasia before they are sufficiently tainted by bourgeious capitalism-consumerism .

I don't really care about that, I mean, sure socialism... that's a bad thing, or so my advisors tell me to say in public, but I really just want to be registered in my home province, not that there's anything wrong with South Carolina, Michigan, Maine, Alabama, or Vermont.

Siege

[MasterJedi]

Why not? My only complaint is that too many socialist provinces might enter Atlasia before they are sufficiently tainted by bourgeious capitalism-consumerism .

I don't really care about that, I mean, sure socialism... that's a bad thing, or so my advisors tell me to say in public, but I really just want to be registered in my home province, not that there's anything wrong with South Carolina, Michigan, Maine, Alabama, or Vermont.

Siege

In real life that would be a problem but not in Atlasia, we can all sleep easy at night now.

[Sam Spade]

For the record, I will oppose this bill as I have opposed all relevant pieces of legislation before that mirror the above.

that's a silly attitude

I'm a silly kind of guy.

[MasterJedi]

For the record, I will oppose this bill as I have opposed all relevant pieces of legislation before that mirror the above.

that's a silly attitude

I'm a silly kind of guy.

And you oppose it after you vote for the admission of Puerto Rico?

[Sam Spade]

For the record, I will oppose this bill as I have opposed all relevant pieces of legislation before that mirror the above.

that's a silly attitude

I'm a silly kind of guy.

And you oppose it after you vote for the admission of Puerto Rico?

Technically, that bill had no provision for there to be a calling of the vote for statehood in Puerto Rico anyway.  That's the reason why I ended up supporting it.  I was quite surprised that John Ford did call a vote.

[Emsworth]

The question is on final passage of the constitutional amendment. All those in favor, say Aye; those opposed, say No.

[Sam Spade]

Nay.

[Gabu]

Aye.  There's nothing inherently imperialistic about this bill.  It just provides the tools to add a new state if we happen to want to do that at a later date.

[MasterJedi]

Aye