MA: Re-Establishment of a Lieutenant Governor Amendment (Debating)

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

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Article I, Section 4 of the Mideast Constitution is hereby amended to read:

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Article I of the Mideast Constitution is hereby amended to include the subsequent Section 5, Section 6, and Section 7:

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Article II, Section 2 of the Mideast Constitution is hereby amended to read:

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Article III, Section 1 of the Mideast Constitution is hereby amended to read:

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Article III, Section 2 of the Mideast Constitution is hereby amended to read:

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Article IV, Section 1 of the Mideast Constitution is hereby amended to read:

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Article VI, Section 1 of the Mideast Constitution is hereby amended to read:

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All subsections of the Mideast Constitution (i.e. Part 1 of Article III, Section 5) not modified by this Act shall remain intact. [/quote]
Sponsor: TexasDem
Co-Sponsor: Mr. X

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

This amendment has some things I take major issue with... specifically allowing the Lt. Governor to have the ability to make appointments to the Assembly as well as propose legislation.

Additionally, this changes a few things that have just been changed via other amendments.  My recommendation is to hold off on this for a bit until we see what all passes votes of the people.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I don't see why the Assembly should have the power to approve the Lt. Governor.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I don't see why the Assembly should have the power to approve the Lt. Governor.

It's the same process to approve a Regional Senator in case of vacancy.

Which is a legislative branch position to the federal government, not the executive branch.  Can anyone name a single U.S. state that does something like that?

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I don't see why the Assembly should have the power to approve the Lt. Governor.

It's the same process to approve a Regional Senator in case of vacancy.

Which is a legislative branch position to the federal government, not the executive branch.  Can anyone name a single U.S. state that does something like that?

Wisconsin. And it doesn't really matter to me whether any U.S. state does so or not. No state requires legislative approval for appointees to the Senate, so under your reasoning, that should be eliminated too.

No, but at one point legislatures controlled Senate nominees.  That actually makes sense.  This doesn't.  Why should the legislature have that control?  Especially when the Lt. Governor has some control over the Assembly.  It doesn't make sense to have an Assembly who has control over a LG who has control over the Assembly... that's not checks and balances - that's circular power that could be abused.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

The LG has power to fill vacancies, break ties, propose legislation... he's actually more powerful than the Governor.  The only thing he doesn't do is sign laws.  He has control over the Court and the Assembly.  And he doesn't even have to run with the Governor, which makes this even more problematic.  What if the two of them don't agree on the Judicial nominee?  And why give him the power to replace people in the Assembly instead of the Governor?  This amendment essentially makes the Governor a figurehead.  I'll have a lot of amendments for this bill, but if they pass, it's gonna look nothing like the original.  I think this is a very short-sighted amendment that's going to present major problems down the road.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

But it's a ridiculous idea that the Speaker should be able to nominate the judge if the executive branch can't agree, since that'd mean he's later voting to approve his own nominee.

I wasn't aware of the amendment to make assembly nominations done by both people, so I guess that moves the LG from being more powerful than the Governor to about equal.  The only thing he can't do is sign laws.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

No, my saying that was based on thinking that the LG would be the exclusive person to nominate vacancies to the Assembly (thus those who can override a veto).  Now that that's no longer there, the LG is definitely weaker than the Governor.  I just think he should be weaker.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Isn't the Assembly in recess right now?

Yes.  That doesn't mean we can't come on the floor and talk though.  We're in recess; the doors aren't locked.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

They were separate before, but I never liked that.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Not for Assembly appointments, though - the Speaker shouldn't be appointing members to his own body.

For the Assembly appointment, who could break it then? Maybe the Judge would choose the one he deemed to be more qualified, and then issue a full explanation of his decision?

I would be okay with the Superior Court Judge breaking the tie for Assembly appointment.

I disagree.  The judge shouldn't be involved in such politically-motivated decisions.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

So do we have any amended language?

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I'll sponsor this and bring it to a vote.  Members will vote AYE, NAY, or ABSTAIN.  This will be a 24-hour vote.

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Article I, Section 3 of the Mideast Constitution is hereby amended to read:

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Article I, Section 4 of the Mideast Constitution is hereby amended to read:

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Article II, Section 2 of the Mideast Constitution is hereby amended to read:

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Article III, Section 1 of the Mideast Constitution is hereby amended to read:

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Article III, Section 2 of the Mideast Constitution is hereby amended to read:

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Article IV, Section 1 of the Mideast Constitution is hereby amended to read:

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Article VI, Section 1 of the Mideast Constitution is hereby amended to read:

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All subsections of the Mideast Constitution (i.e. Part 1 of Article III, Section 5) not modified by this Act shall remain intact. [/quote]

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I still don't like these changes, but they're better than the original bill.

AYE

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I don't think the Governor should have that power.  That makes him too much of a legislator.  And I think that should be a separate amendment.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Voting is now closed.  The AYEs are 4, and the NAYs are 1.  The AYEs have it, and the amendment is agreed to.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I introduce the following amendment:

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[/quote]

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Voting on the amendment is now open.  Members will vote AYE, NAY, or ABSTAIN.  This will be a 24-hour vote.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

AYE

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I introduce the following amendment.  This fixes something that has gone overlooked in the Constitution - since the Judge is no longer nominated only for an individual case, this language is irrelevant:

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[/quote]

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Why have you proposed eliminating reconfirmation?

That was put in there when we appointed Judges to oversee cases after they were announced to have been made.  It's not needed; I don't think we've ever held a reconfirmation vote; and if a judge acts irresponsibly, he can be recalled.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Although that really doesn't belong in an amendment dealing with reinstating the LG, now that I think about it.  I'll propose this as a different amendment.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Nay, but this wouldn't be a deal-breaker by any stretch of the imagination.

Nay, because there's a different amendment I plan to introduce that might make an Assembly confirmation more acceptable, but this won't be a deal-breaker like Mr. X said above.

Do you have this amendment ready?

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

What all are you changing?  Can you just crop it down to whatever changes from the current form of the bill are?  We don't need to vote on the whole new thing... and it's hard to follow exactly what's being amended when you make such a big amendment.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I suggest you re-word the Court part to be something like "adds the words 'blah blah blah' before the word 'blah'", that way if the other amendment passes, we don't have to start this from scratch.