SE House legislation introduction Thread

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I guess I would be the logical choice, having the most legislative experience. So, I'll go for it.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Would you guys like to make a vote for it on the main thread?

     Let's wait until Deldem has a chance to weigh in on the Speakership, then open the vote.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Abortion Rights Bill

1. It shall be legal to induce an abortion in the Southeast Region until the end of the second trimester of the pregnancy, after which point it shall be against the law, except in the case of a severe threat to the mother's health or the mother having been impregnated through an act of rape.

2. Any individual who induces a prohibited abortion shall have any existing licence from the Southeast Region or a subdivision thereof to practice a medical profession revoked.

3. Any individual who knowingly induces a prohibited abortion shall be sentenced to up to three years in prison. Any person knowingly facilitating the inducement of a prohibited abortion shall be subject to a criminal fine of up to $5,000.

4a. Any state statutes legislating abortion existing at the time of this bill's passage are superseded.

4b. 17. Abortion Initiative is superseded.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Abortion Rights Bill

1. It shall be legal to induce an abortion in the Southeast Region until the end of the second trimester of the pregnancy, after which point it shall be against the law, except in the case of a severe threat to the mother's health or the mother having been impregnated through an act of rape.

2. Any individual who induces a prohibited abortion shall have any existing licence from the Southeast Region or a subdivision thereof to practice a medical profession revoked.

3. Any individual who induces a prohibited abortion shall be sentenced to three years in prison. Any person knowingly facilitating the inducement of a prohibited abortion shall be subject to a criminal fine of $500,000.

4a. Any state statutes legislating abortion existing at the time of this bill's passage are superseded.

4b. 17. Abortion Initiative is superseded.

Nitpicker alert:

Shouldn't Section 3 read "up to" 3 years prison and/or $500k fine? Otherwise this requires a mandatory sentence and fine that no court could even partially suspend as the facts of the case dictate.

Also shouldn't both penalties require "knowing" inducement rather than just the potential fine? Otherwise this imposes strict liability for the most innocent of accidents, like slipping on the sidewalk, that induces a third trimester "abortion" punishable by 3 years incarceration.

Finally FWIW, after a brief scan of RL laws I can't find any crime that permits a maximum fine of more than a tiny fraction of $500k. There may be some federal corporate pollution or insider trading statutes that allow something in that neighborhood, but as a fine against an individual criminal offender even a tenth this would be almost unheard of.

After more checking: Yep, highly unusual to say the least.
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/f-s-a-deals-largest-fine-ever-for-insider-trading/

May I respectfully suggest maybe in the $5-20k range?

Otherwise, great bill!

     Thank you for the advice. I'll admit actually that I based it directly on the region's current statute regarding abortion with very few changes to the wording. I suppose that even if I can't convince my colleagues to make abortion more available, we can at least make the criminal consequences less draconian.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Also introduced on behalf of Governor Jbrase:

     The Two States Are Better Than One Bill

1. As per Article IV, Section 2, Clause 6 of the Constitution,
The Southeast shall hold a referendum on the creation of a new state, Nueva Tejas (hereafter abbreviated NT).

2. NT shall consist of all the land in Texas west of the old Republic of Texas border.

3. Should the referendum pass, this request will be sent to the Senate for final approval.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Tejas isn't plural.

You're right, it should be edited as Neuva Tejas.

     Alright, I edited it.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Self-Defense Bill

1. It shall be the right of any property owner to defend his/her property from any person (hereafter referred to as an intruder) who s/he reasonably believes has come onto his/her property with the intent to bring harm and/or cause damage against the property, the property owner, or any guest of the property owner, and who the property owner believes constitutes a direct threat in the intruder's current state.

2. Should a property owner maim or kill an intruder in compliance with this act, that person shall be immune to any and all civil actions arising from the actions of the property owner in response to the actions of the intruder.

3. A property owner acting in compliance with this act shall not be legally bound by any duty to retreat, and may use an amount of force against the intruder that the property owner reasonably believes is necessary to stop the attack, after having given a visual, verbal, or other auditory warning.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Since the legislature has nothing up now, I will propose a very modest bill, so we are at least doing something:

Amendment to the Abortion Initiative

Section 3 of 17. Abortion Initiative is amended to read: Any individual who knowingly induces a prohibited abortion shall be sentenced to three years in prison. Any person knowingly facilitating the inducement of a prohibited abortion shall be subject to a criminal fine of $500,000.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Hopefully we can use this bill as a vehicle to enact any other changes required to deal with the prison overcrowding problem.

Lighten The Prison Load Bill

1. All persons serving sentences for cultivation, possession, or possession with intent to sell of any drug legalized by the Comprehensive Drug Reform Initiative shall hereby be pardoned.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Introduced on the behalf of Governor Jbrase:

Put the "free" back in Free Enterprise Bill

1. All non-federal business regulations in the Southeast are hereby repealed.

2. From June 1, 2010 through November 1, 2010 all taxes on corporate income shall be suspended. After November 1, the rate at which corporations are taxed shall be set at 8.6%

3. All new businesses in the SE shall not have their income taxed within the first year of starting.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Introduced at the suggestion of Lt. Governor tb75:

Pornography Leniency Bill

1. The Pornography Restrictions Initiative is hereby repealed.

2. Regional enforcement of the Anti-Opebo Act is hereby restored to the federal definition of the term child pornography, as provided in the Anti-Opebo Act.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Introduced on behalf of Governor Jbrase:

Law'n Stuff Reform Bill

1a. The Regional clerk is hereby abolished.

1b. All duties of the regional clerk, i.e. voter roll maintenance, shall be handled by the Lt. Governor

2a. The office of Southeast Attorney General is hereby created.

2b. The SE AG  shall represent the region in all court cases, regional and Federal.

2c. The SE AG shall be elected to 2 month terms coinciding with the elections of the Governor and Lt. Governor.

3. All future Supreme Judicial Overlords following the present one, John Dibble, shall, in the spirit of the Romans, have the Suffix "Dibble" added to their names while in office.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Bill of Additions to the Standing Rules

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]

     Introduced on behalf of Lt. Governor tb75:

The Preventing of Sexual Offenses Act

Section One:

1. The Southeast will Create a Database of Sexual Offenders for local law enforcement agencies. It will be based of the regular crime databases.

2. All Sex Offenders must register in the database. If the person is scheduled for parole, the man/women must register 30 day sin advance or lose their chance at parole.

3. Law Enforcement must keep the Sexual Offender database updated every two weeks.

4. Failure of a past sex offender to report data to the database will result in jail time.

5. The of a police agency to update the database will result in a money fine or loss of privileges.

6.  Failure to update information pursuant to subsection (3) will incur penalties outlined in subsection (5).

Section Two:

1. The Minimum jail sentence for Sex Offenders is fifteen years in prison.

2. Any convicted sex offender who is subsequently convicted of another sexual offense or violent crime will be given a minimum sentence of life without parole.

Section Three:

1. Funding for the Southeast Regional Sex Offender Database will be provided by increasing the driver's license fee by one dollar. Any excess funds shall be placed into the general activities fund.

Section Four:


For the purposes of this law, a sex offender is defined as a person convicted of one or more of the following crimes:
Sexual assault in the first, second or third degree;
Unlawful sexual contact;
Sexual assault on a child;
Sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust;
Sexual assault on a client by a psychotherapist;
Enticement of a child;
Incest;
Aggravated Incest;
1st,2nd,and 3rd degree Rape
Trafficking in children;
Sexual exploitation of children;
Procurement of a child for sexual exploitation;
Soliciting for child prostitution;
Pandering of a child;
Procurement of a child for prostitution;
Keeping a place of child prostitution;
Pimping of a child;
Inducement of child prostitution;
Patronizing a prostituted child;
Engaging in Sexual Conduct in a Penal Institution;
Wholesale Promotion of Obscenity to Minors; and
Promotion of Obscenity to Minors
Criminal attempt, conspiracy or solicitation to commit any of the above offenses.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Re-wrote it to try to address the concerns of my colleague Ernest. Credit still goes to Lt. Governor tb75 for thinking up the idea.
Pornography Leniency Bill

1. The Pornography Restrictions Initiative is hereby repealed.

2a. No person under the age of 18 years may distribute pornographic images or videos of oneself for profit or other valuable consideration, under penalty of four to six months incarceration and a fine of no more than $3000.

2b. No person may receive pornographic images or video of a person under the age of 18 years in exchange for money or other valuable consideration, under penalty of five to fifteen years incarceration and a fine of $100000.

3. No person may distribute pornographic images or video of a person under the age of 18 years other than oneself, under penalty of ten to twenty years incarceration and a fine of $150000.

4. No person may create pornographic images or video of a person under the age of 18 years other than oneself, under penalty of fifteen to twenty-five years incarceration and a fine of $200000.

5. No person may be charged with a crime under this law who may also be charged with a crime under the Anti-Opebo Act.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I guess this ought to be proposed as a bill, so I am introducing it on behalf of Governor Jbrase:

Constitutional Convention Petition

The Southeast Region formally petitions the President of Atlasia to call a Constitutional Convention for the purposes of consolidation of the constitution and/or legislative reboot of the game.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Inspired by the Ludlow Amendment proposed by Senator Libertas:

Accountable Military Bill

1. Should the Southeast Militia be committed to action by executive order, except in response to a direct attack by a hostile force, it shall be the right of the citizens to petition for a referendum on the matter.

2. Should the petition gain the signatures of three registered citizens of the Southeast, a voting booth on the referendum shall be opened within fourty-eight hours to remain open for seventy-two hours, unless the Southeast Militia is recalled from the action in question within that time.

3. Should a majority of citizens who vote on the referendum vote in favor of recalling the Southeast Militia from the action in question, then the Southeast Militia shall be immediately recalled, with the withdrawal completed within two weeks of the closing of the voting booth on the matter in question.

[Associate Justice PiT]

End To Onerous & Ignored Officeholder Responsibilities Bill

1. 117. Regional Budget Creation Initiative is hereby repealed.

[Associate Justice PiT]

As president of the Atlasian Association for the Advancement of Evil People, I feel it necessary to introduce legislation to continue my effort to make the Southeast the most evil region in all of Atlasia. We should continue to rename out institutions to show just how evil our region is, so that the rest of the nation will fear us and therefore not mess with us.

The Council of Darkness Amendment

1. All references in the Southeastern Constitution to the Legislature/House of Representatives shall be replaced with the new name "Council of Darkness".
2. The title by which members of this body are referred shall be "Councilor" and all references in the Southeastern Constitution to the previous title shall be changed accordingly.


I welcome alternative suggestions to the names, but I insist that they be evil.

     I am officially proposing this bill on behalf of Judicial Overlord Dibble.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I really like the large version of the last flag.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Change Of Flag Bill

1. The flag depicted below shall become the regional flag of the Imperial Dominion of the South, upon passage of this bill.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Holiday Establishment Bill

1. January 13th is hereby made a regional holiday, known as Aaron Burr Day.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Many thanks for all of those.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Aside from bringing up the budget bill first, my other big request is to bring up the SOIL bill last. Should we pass that, I want to put together everything we've passed pertaining to the standing orders & discuss further modifications & expansions to them. There's a great deal that is written down but not implemented or implemented but not written down. Just now we had confusion over who should conduct the announcements of candidacy for Imperial Speaker.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Alright, just gonna put it out here

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Hey! First bill I ever proposed, hope someone might take a liking to this and bring it up.

     Looks good, though I think we will want to put some numbers to it. Many thanks for writing a bill up, though!