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Bill: Civil Rights Precedence Act
Details
Submitted by[?]: Monarchism Démocratique et Fédéral
Status[?]: defeated
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: March 2446
Description[?]:
| Please vote against this bill to establish a legal precedent against these horrific practices. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change Racial segregation of public amenities (eg. drinking fountains, public toilets)
Old value:: Segregation of any public amenity is banned.
Current: Segregation of any public amenity is banned.
Proposed: All public amenities are segregated.
Article 2
Proposal[?] to change Government position in respect to crossdressing policy.
Old value:: Crossdressing is allowed.
Current: Crossdressing is allowed.
Proposed: Crossdressing is prohibited by the state.
Article 3
Proposal[?] to change Government policy toward marriage.
Old value:: The government allows all consenting adults to obtain civil marriage contracts.
Current: The government allows all consenting adults to obtain civil marriage contracts.
Proposed: The government only recognises civil marriages between a man and a woman.
Article 4
Proposal[?] to change The government's stance on population control.
Old value:: The government does not engage in population control.
Current: The government does not engage in population control.
Proposed: The government imposes a limit on the number of children per family.
Article 5
Proposal[?] to change Policy concerning racial segregation in educational institutions.
Old value:: Segregation is illegal in all educational institutions.
Current: Segregation is illegal in all educational institutions.
Proposed: All educational institutions must be segregated.
Article 6
Proposal[?] to change The legality of slavery.
Old value:: Slavery and the slave trade are illegal.
Current: Slavery and the slave trade are illegal.
Proposed: Slavery and the slave trade is allowed.
Article 7
Proposal[?] to change Government policy on sexual relations.
Old value:: Sexual relations of all types are legal for consenting adults.
Current: Sexual relations of all types are legal for consenting adults.
Proposed: Sexual relations are only legal for procreation.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 02:35:43, August 22, 2007 CET | From | Society For A Free And Safe Lourenne | To | Debating the Civil Rights Precedence Act |
| Message | This is quite the odd way to waste government resources. We are in a budget crises and the fat cat PM and his league go and was how much money on crap like this? I wonder how much it costs to print all the copies of this bill to be presented, pay the staffers to run it around the offices, and other misc. costs. This is simply the most wasteful thing I have ever seen. |
| Date | 02:44:58, August 22, 2007 CET | From | Monarchism Démocratique et Fédéral | To | Debating the Civil Rights Precedence Act |
| Message | Perhaps you should retire from government if you find its execution so distasteful. These are important precedents on which Lourenne's government has been silent. We must establish a firm writ of prohibition against these measures, despite what inexperienced parties may think. And it costs next to nothing to print the bill and have it distributed. I would have an itemized budget report sent to you, but you don't work for the government, so it's really none of your business. Senator Stefan Tepeu The Redemption Party |
| Date | 02:57:23, August 22, 2007 CET | From | Society For A Free And Safe Lourenne | To | Debating the Civil Rights Precedence Act |
| Message | We are citizens and our taxes pay the costs you deem "next to nothing." If anything it is our right to know how much wasteful crap like this costs. The legal precedents are already on the books. Is anybody in your party capable of reading? The laws on the books clearly state things such as slavery illegal, and things such as cross dressing are legal. We demand the "itemized budget" you acknowledge to be withhold from the good people of Lourenne. Furthermore, we wish to remind you and your party leaders are only in office at our will. Furthermore to speak to the same people who put you in office in such a demeaning manner is not only rude but simply bad politics. |
| Date | 05:23:00, August 22, 2007 CET | From | Economic Liberty Party | To | Debating the Civil Rights Precedence Act |
| Message | (The Redemption Party has voted against the bill most likely to boost their civil liberties credentials. In this game you can propose bills and vote against them because this game is dumb) This is a waste of time, but it should come as no surprise that the Redemption Party would rather introduce bills to be defeated rather than introduce bills that attempt to make Lourenne a better place. |
| Date | 07:40:12, August 22, 2007 CET | From | Monarchism Démocratique et Fédéral | To | Debating the Civil Rights Precedence Act |
| Message | First of all, I would like to make it known that while Senator Tepeu is a valued senator in our party, he can be more confrontational than many of us would like. I apologize on his behalf if his words have caused undue distress. That said, he is right about precedent. These laws are already on the books, but our nation's government is young, and we must assure the electorate that we do not intend to overturn these laws, as we have overturned so many of the outdated ones. Without a legislative commitment to the contrary, much of our legal system would appear "up for grabs," or impermanent; indeed, much of our governmental structure is still provisional, and we need to clearly demarcate the fundamental rights that we wish our citizens to have. Senator Tepeu was wrong, however, about the government budget not being anyone's business; the President does not echo this sentiment, and neither do most of our party members. Government transparency is vital to a free republic. Rest assured that the cost of this bill's production was well under 500 LFR, paid out of the Redemption Party's budget, not that of the state. A page has been instructed to fax you a copy of the records. But let us not bicker about minor things like the cost of a few pages. Furthermore, I urge the ELP to introduce legislation of its own if it feels that we should be addressing other issues. The Redemption Party has indeed introduced a bill to make Lourenne a better place, and has done so countless times over the past seven years; in fact, bills of our own authorship are the only ones up for a vote. We welcome criticism, but I would be mindful that you don't spend more time sowing discord than you do writing legislation. We are all serving the same higher purpose here. Prime Minister Cliff Cass The Redemption Party |
| Date | 18:30:59, August 22, 2007 CET | From | Society For A Free And Safe Lourenne | To | Debating the Civil Rights Precedence Act |
| Message | I take issue with a few of your points. First, the senator acted vary unprofessional and he should be repremanded. I would like you to formally repremand him to prevent his further outbursts rather then just appoligising for them. Next, there are several reasons to make a bill. Establishing a precident is not one of them. precidents are for the courts to make not partisian suits such as yourself. {I would also like to point out, OOC, that laws do not work this way at all (like I said, precidents are made in the courts not the legislator) and it seems to me you are just trying to cheat the system to gain more votes} Finnaly you point out that your party is the only one that has bills up to vote. look at when this bill was introduced and when it was sent to the floor for a vote. No time for debate was allowed. You are just pandering to voters and attempting to look like your party is actually doing something, when they are really sitting around collection paychecks. This bill disgusts me, your party's actions discuss me and if elections were not so close we would spearhead a recall movement to oust your corrupt party from leadership. I also advise smaller parties who cannot at this time be elected to PM or head of state to pledge thier support to the ELP, LHP, NOF or the secular party to get a new government. |
| Date | 19:18:42, August 22, 2007 CET | From | Economic Liberty Party | To | Debating the Civil Rights Precedence Act |
| Message | I'm afraid that since the NOF voted against our very needed constituional reforms we cannot form a government until the next election, when the people of Lourenne finally tire of the Redemption Party that cannot even keep its own members in line. The ELP will be more than happy to recieve any endorsements it can in the Presidential elections, from any party - for the good of Lourenne - we need change, and fast! |
| Date | 20:26:01, August 22, 2007 CET | From | Monarchism Démocratique et Fédéral | To | Debating the Civil Rights Precedence Act |
| Message | ((OOC: Just because the judicial branch can establish precedent as well doesn't mean that the legislative branch can't; the U.S. legislature establishes precedent all the time. It might not be the final authority, but it can still establish precedent. Besides, our model of government doesn't have to be identical to existing ones, and the claim that courts set precedent is rooted in a traditional notion of government which needn't apply to Lourenne. But if we're going the whole "in real life" route, then in real life, a resolution with no hard legal changes can still have a powerful effect on public opinion; that's exactly what this bill does. In real life, we would be able to take a stand on issues other than those that need changing. If the parties of change were the only ones allowed to gain notoriety, that would give a definite bias to those parties, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense. How else are parties supposed to indicate that they don't want change? I don't think I'm cheating the system so much as using it to make the process more realistic; if our laws and voters are all already progressive, it's not that terrible to set up a mechanism by which parties can tell the voters that they agree with the existing laws. Otherwise, a party that agrees with 90% of the progressive laws on the books could have a political status of "conservative" just because the other 10% is the only part that the game engine recognized. If everyone else thinks I'm a bastard for doing this, we can set up some OOC rules against it or something, but like I said, I don't see it as cheating, especially since it affects everyone equally.)) The Senator did nothing illegal or immoral, and is guilty of nothing more than impoliteness. Please don't drag this out; demanding punishment for petty things is just as rude. Establishing a precedent is indeed a reason to make a bill, and it was the reason this bill was made. I don't see why on Terra you would think that courts have the exclusive right to establish legal precedent. There was little time for debate because the term is ending, and we do not wish for the last eight months of the term to be totally fruitless. Our party has formed the least corrupt government in Lourenne's history. The Redemption Party commanded the first real presidency and the first legislature, and under our leadership, the country was pulled out of the muck of corruption and into the redeeming light of democracy. The public record shows our integrity as plain as day, in contrast to your belligerent accusations; you might as well accuse the sun of casting darkness upon us during the night. However, President Hutton feels that a true democracy must be prepared to let power flow from party to party, and the Redemption Party has already chosen not to offer their own presidential candidate for the next election. As a signal to true democratic ideals, he will be endorsing the most competent candidate from the opposition. Prime Minister Cliff Cass The Redemption Party |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||||||
| yes | Total Seats: 0 | ||||||
| no |
Total Seats: 58 | ||||||
| abstain | Total Seats: 29 |
| Random fact: References to prominent real-life persons are not allowed. This includes references to philosophies featuring the name of a real-life person (eg. "Marxism", "Thatcherism", "Keynesianism"). |
| Random quote: "The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people." - Noam Chomsky |