Constitution of the North American Confederation

The Constitution of the North American Confederation is the supreme law of the North American Confederation. The Constitution, comprising of nine articles and a preamble, delineates the frame of the Confederation's government. Article One outlines the bill of rights, a list of the most important rights to the citizens of the country. Article Two outlines the cultural identifiers and national designations. Articles Three, Four, Five, and Six embody the doctrine of the separation of powers, whereby the government is divided into four branches: the Legislature, consisting of the unicameral Senate; the Sovereign, consisting of the Emperor and the Imperial family; the Executive, consisting of the Prime Minister and their Cabinet of the North American Confederation; and the Judiciary, consisting of the Chief Justiice and other inferior courts. Article Seven establishes the procedures and organizations of the Imperial Guard and the Guard Council of the North American Confederation. Articles Eight and Nine outline the superiority of the Constitution above all other laws and the requirements for amending the document. Since the Constitution came into force in 2018, it has been amended a single time, in order to meet the changing needs of the nation.

Background
In the history of the Confederation, there have been two ratified Constitutions. Each was the result of a long period of compromise, struggle, and crisis.

The First Constitution
The first Constitution was formed in 2010, during the Meek government. It was the result of a compromise between the governments of the New Europe, the Eniarku and Ohio. As a result of this compromise, this first Constitution was a collection of checks and balances that made authority difficult to manage or determine, effectively granting a great deal of centralized authority between the Emperor and Prime Minister. Despite the difficulties, this system seemed to work; though only so long as there was no great crisis between either office. When the Emperor announced his abdication during the height of the Micras crisis, the Constitution was useless in helping to determine how to properly fill in the void left over by the Emperor's absence. As a result, near unlimited power was vested in Prime Minister Aaron Meek|Meek, who quickly attempted to assert control over the Confederation. This effort failed when the Republic of Ohio, a hotbed for the now-defunct Liberty Party, refused to accept the Emperor's abdication as valid and declared the Prime Minister's actions unconstitutional. With New Europe gone and Eniarku and Ohio in the middle of a constitutional crisis; Prime Minister Meek soon declared the North American Confederation dissolved, leading to governmental chaos for all citizens left out of the decision. Upon the collapse of the Meek government, the first Constitution was effectively defunct - leading directly to the crisis of the Interregnum.

Interregnum and Provisional Governance
During the period of chaos that was the Interregnum, there was no effective governance for any of the territory left over from the secession of Eniarku and New Europe. In 2013, there was an attempt by the Empire of New Europe to make a claim on the former territories of the Confederation under the New European constitution. These efforts were for naught, as the government of New Europe fell apart soon after when the Emperor joined up with the United States military. It wasn't until 2015, when Emperor William I made an agreement with the retired Ohioan politician, Rev. Joseph Marx, to restore the Confederation. Agreeing to use emergency powers, William reclaimed the throne and named Rev. Marx, the 2nd Prime Minister of the North American Confederation. Prime Minister Marx soon began the process of creating a provisional government to restore order to the nation. The first actions of the new administration were to restore territorial claims and a degree of government fail-safes and checks between himself and the Emperor. This period is sometimes considered to have been a period of an uncodified constitution, or the Provisional Constitutional Acts. These acts restored the powers of the monarchy, formalized a line of succession to prevent another abdication crisis, created a provisional legislature to help in the drafting and determination of a second codified Constitution, and formally provided the protocols for foreign relations. Through these uncodified Constitutional Acts, the restored North American Confederation soon established the nation as a powerful and influential member of the micronational community, even creating a series of alliances between the Confederation, the Grand Republic of Delvera, and the Karnia-Ruthenia.

Constitutional Convention Failures and Delveran Integration
Despite the apparent success and political strength of the provisional government; behind the scenes, systemic problems with these Constitutional Acts began to have a detrimental effect upon the administration of the government. At the heart of the problems was a necessary reliance of mutual agreement between the Emperor, Prime Minister, and the Provisional legislature, as the schedules of all parties involved made meetings to discuss politics incredibly difficult to achieve, often leading to weeks of inactivity or miscommunication between various branches. Efforts were made in late 2017 to draft a Constitution, as each state in the Confederation was asked to submit a constitutional proposal. These proposals would then be combined and modified at an official convention to flesh out a document that could be agreed on by everyone. While such proposals were submitted, the systemic inactivity made planning a single convention almost impossible and the Constitutional project remained unresolved. Beyond the systemic issues of the Constitutional Acts, outside influences had also begun to impact and shift the goals of the Constitutional project. Following the Congress of Colo, Delvera and the North American Confederation began to consider the possibility of admitting the Confederation as a Delveran province.

History
Around February of 2018, Rev. Marx began the long and arduous process of drafting a Constitution that could properly deal with the flaws of previous administrative practices, as well as take into account the numerous political ideologies of the various Confederation and Delveran citizens that would be impacted by such a Constitution. As it was the Prime Ministers intention for this new constitution and political structure to "wipe away" the previous legsilative and political structures of the nation, he named his new Constitutional project Operation Tabula - derived from the Latin phrase Tabula rasa, meaning "blank slate". Operation Tabula utilized many of the aspects which had been proposed in earlier Constitutional proposals, including drawing heavily from the Illinois and Greene proposals. Rev. Marx also took heavy inspiration from the Constitution of the United States, the Delveran Constitution, the Ohio Empire's Universal Rights of Man and even the Great Law of Peace, the oral constitution of the Haudenosaunee. With help from numerous citizens, the Emperor, and even the Consul of Delvera; the second Constitution of the North American Confederation was completed on the 26 June 2018. It would later be ratified and accepted by the mutual consent of Rev. Marx and Emperor William on the 26 June 2018.

Preamble
The preamble to the Constitution serves as an introductory statement of the document's fundamental purposes and guiding principles. While it neither assigns powers to the Confederation government nor does it place specific limitations on government action. It does set out the origin, scope, and purpose of the Constitution. Its origin and authority are in "We, the people of the North American Confederation". The first three paragraphs of the preamble also act as a logical argument for the underlying philosophy behind the creation of governments with regards to social contract theory and the inalienable rights of humanity. The scope of the Constitution is twofold. First, "to ensure perpetual union between the households of the Confederation"; and secondly, to "lay out the structure and responsibilities of our government, protect the inalienable rights and dignities of our peoples, and to stand as physical proof of our social contract."

Article One
Article One is the official Bill of Rights for the Confederation. Obviously drawing heavy inspiration from the United States Bill of Rights, Article One outlines the inherent rights of the citizens of the Confederation and the limitations on the government with regards to those rights. The article is comprised of 16 sections, each covering a specific right or privilege of the citizens.

Section 1
"Humanity is endowed, by the nature of their greater intellect and consciousness, with rights which cannot be removed by any authority, be they local, state, or government; furthermore, mankind, being without the bonds of higher authority, would possess unlimited capacity for action; therefore the rights included in the following article are not the full extent of human rights, only the rights which cannot be infringed upon."

Section 1 reiterates some of the logical arguments utilized in the Preamble of the Constitution, recognizing the existence of natural rights while simultaneously declaring that Article One is neither an explicit nor exhaustive list of those rights.

Section 2
"All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for their equal protection and benefit, and they have the right to alter, reform, or abolish the same, whenever they may deem it necessary; and no special privileges or immunities shall ever be granted, that may not be altered, revoked, or repealed by the Senate."

Section 2 places the fundamental authority of the nation within the citizenry and defines the government as a tool to be used by society for their collective protection and benefit. The section also protects the citizens right to alter, reform, and abolish the government. These rights extend not only to voting and the amending of the Constitution, but secession as well, in accordance with the Congress of Colo.

Section 3
"The right of the people to mobilize publically to make their opinions and positions known shall not be infringed, unless their mobilization explicitly puts the safety or security of the community at risk."

Section 3 protects the right of the citizens to assemble peaceably to address grievances or state their opinions, but does restrict that right should such assembly represent an explicit risk to the community.

Section 4
"The right of the people to possess the means to defend themselves shall be protected, provided they undergo the proper training and education necessary to ensure the safe exercise of their self-defense; as well as agree to abide by all necessary regulatory standards; but standing armies, in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, and shall not be kept up; and the military shall be in strict subordination to the civil power."

Section 4 protects the right of the citizens to own and bear weapons, primarily for the defense one's own life or the lives of others. While Section 4 does not restrict the right of citizens to own any weapons, it does allow the government of the Confederation the ability to establish the regulatory standards necessary to ensure the citizens can safely exercise their right. The section also regulates the use of a standing army during peacetime, as well as making it subordinate to the government of the Confederation.

Section 5
"Licenses and registration must be filled out for all weapons within the Confederation, though the means of receiving training and registration in self-defense shall be made simple and readily available."

Section 5 continues to outline and clarify the rights of citizens to the possession of weapons described in Section 4, with a greater focus on limiting just how much regulation the Confederation government can utilize. The section requires that any training or regulation mandated by the government be reasonably available to all citizens, forbidding regulations that intend to practically ban or outlaw any weapon. Initially, Section 5 also mandated that all weapons within the Confederation had to be licensed and registered. This was seen as superfluous by some politicians in the Confederation and this power was removed, following the ratification of the Delveran Integration Amendment on 28 July 2018, leaving only the "readily available" clause.

Section 6
"All persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, except for a person who is charged with a capital offense where the proof is evident or the presumption great, and where the person poses a substantial risk of serious physical harm to any person or to the community. Where a person is charged with any offense for which the person may be incarcerated, the court may determine at any time the type, amount, and conditions of bail. Excessive bail shall not be required; nor excessive fines imposed; nor may any person be subjected to cruel or inhumane punishments, be they physical or psychological."

- The original text of Section 6

"No excessive fines may be imposed upon those citizens convicted of a crime; nor may any person be subjected to cruel or inhumane punishments, be they physical or psychological."

- Section 6, following the Ratification of the Delveran Integration Amendment

In its original form, Section 6 was nearly a direct copy of the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution, with additions to classify psychological attacks as a form of cruel or inhumane punishments. This addition was made to contrast and criticize the United States government's use of waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation methods". Delveran law actually forbids the use of incarceration as a punishment for crimes, so on 28 July 2018, the Delveran Integration Amendment removed all references to incarceration within the document, re-writing the whole of Section 6 to focus more on cruel and inhumane punishments and excessive fines.

Section 7
"No person may find themselves, due to poverty and/or personal circumstances, the property of another; nor shall any form of uncompensated or coerced labor be tolerated."

Section 7 outlaws slavery and any other form of uncompensated labor. Slavery as a practice was allowed by the United States Constitution until the passages of the 13th Amendment in 1865. Rev. Marx explicitly targeted what he saw as a massive flaw of the original American Constitution, and expanded it to include controversial concepts such as wage slavery and uncompensated penal labor.

Section 8
"All shall have a natural and indefeasible right to worship according to the dictates of their own conscience. No person shall be compelled to attend, erect, or support any place of worship, or maintain any form of worship, against their consent; and no preference shall be given, by law, to any religious society, organization, or doctrine; nor shall any interference with the rights of conscience be permitted."

Sections 8, 9, and 10 outlines the freedom of religion, with Section 8 focusing on protecting that right, while at the same definitively defending the separation of church and state and secular nature of the Confederation government. The section forbids any religious institution or government from mandating worship on any citizen, regardless of their religious affiliation (or lack thereof).

Section 9
"No religious test shall be required, as a qualification for office, nor shall any person be incompetent to be a witness on account of their religious belief; but nothing herein shall be construed to dispense with oaths and affirmations."

Section 9 stands as the No Religious Test Clause of the Constitution. By its terms, no government officeholder or employee can be required to adhere to or accept any particular religion or doctrine as a prerequisite to holding a political office or a government job. It does not, however, restrict the right for government officers to take an oath or affirmation to support the Constitution.

Section 10
"Morality and knowledge being essential to good governance, it shall be the duty of the Senate to pass suitable laws to protect every religious denomination and creed in the peaceable enjoyment of its own mode of public or private worship, unless the doctrine of any denomination or creed should explicitly condone and/or incite evidential actions in their followers which are contrary to the freedoms expressed in this constitution."

Section 10 expands upon the Freedom of Religion provisions from Section 8, forbiding the Senate from passing any legislation specifically intended to interfere with a religious denomination or creeds ability to worship. This restriction does come with a single proviso, the first of many "Explicit and evidential clauses". Several times throughout the Constitution, Rev. Marx drafted and underlined the words "explicitly condone" and "evidential actions" in order to differentiate their meaning and importance from the surrounding document. The "Explicit and evidential clause" is a codified extension of the "I know it when I see it" concept, first utilized in American law by Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in Jacobellis v. Ohio. The clause is intended to require the government to seek out direct evidence and specific, obvious, and extreme circumstances before they might take an action to limit a group's freedoms to ensure the public welfare. With regards to Section 10, the clause is specifically intended to target religious fundamentalism and terrorists.

Section 11
"The right of the people to speak, write, or think freely shall not be infringed by the government, unless that thought explicitly demands and intentionally to incite violence within the Confederation."

- Original text of the Constitution

Section 11 was intended to be an extension on the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, securing the rights of citizens to freedom of speech and expression. The section also included another use of the "explicit and evidential action" clause, creating a limit of speech with regards to speech made principally to harm or incite panic, as was determined in the US court decision, Schenck vs United States. With Delveran integration, however, a section of the Delveran Integration Amendment altered the language of Section 11 to remove all mentions of thought, as debates over the nature and possible enforcement of "thought crimes", which the section seemed to imply, were deemed unfeasible; changing the language of the section thusly: "The right of the people to speak or write freely shall not be infringed by the government, unless that right explicitly demands and intentionally seeks to incite violence within the Confederation."

Section 12
"The right of workers to unite together in a union for the goal of improving their conditions shall be protected; no employer may fire an employee for joining or participating in union activities, nor shall any union require or coerce employees to participate and/or finance union activities."

Section 12 outlines the right of workers to unionize, protecting the freedom of assembly and the right to protest for better work conditions. It places restrictions on employers, outright forbidding the punishment of employees for participating in a union. The section also places limits on unions as well, forbidding the requirement of union dues or coercion to participate in Union activities.

Section 13
Section 13 outlines and protects the rights of the citizens to vote. It forbids the restriction of voting rights due to criminal background, poverty, or personal characteristics (excluding only the age of majority).

Section 14
"All people shall be considered equal before the law and no person may have their rights infringed due to personal circumstances, compulsions, or preferences (unless those compulsions and preferences explicitly infringe upon the rights of others), or their self-identity."

Section 14 was the brainchild of Ms. Amanda McCollum. The section explicitly outlines equality before the law and outlaws any form of discrimination on the basis of personal circumstances, compulsions, or preferences. This forbids any kind of law or practice specifically targetting any singular race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or religious institution. It is also referred to as the Right to Self-Identity.

Section 15
Section 15 is the longest of the sections in Article One, consisting of seven subsections. 15 outlines the organization of the legal system of the Confederation, determining the size and method of selection for jurors, protecting against self-incrimination, ensuring a trial, etc. More uniquely, section 15 also forbids private legal counsel, establishing all lawyers as civil servants, selected to represent clients at random through a points system.

Section 16
"This enumeration of rights shall not be construed to impair or deny others retained by the people; and all powers, not herein delegated, remain with the people."

Section 16 is nearly a complete copy of the Ninth Amendment of the United States Constitution, negating any expansion of governmental power on account of the enumeration of rights in the Constitution, but the Amendment is not intended to further limit governmental power.

Article Two
Article Two outlines the "designations" of the North American Confederation. By "designations", Rev. Marx meant the specific cultural and historical elements which defined the Confederation, including its name and the reasoning behind that name, the flag and other national symbols (and the process for adding future symbols), and the capital of the nation. Comprised of four sections, some further divided into subsections, Article Two classifies the nation as a "confederacy of households", with the nation's territorial claims comprised of land owned directly by the citizens or the government.

Article Three
"The smallest authority of the nation shall be the households, designated as all citizens living under the same roof - regardless of age."

Article Three specifies and defines the Senate of the North American Confederation. The First Constitution initally created a bicameral legislature, with representatives chosen from each state. Due to the relatively small population at the time, this bicameral arrangement resulted in general inactivity and played a large role in the inevitable collapse of the Meek Cabinet. During the provisional government, an emergency unicameral system was established, which derived its members from both the provinces and the ruling parties of the provisional government. While initially effective, the relative inactivity and disunion of the states resulted in yet another inactive legislature. To solve this issue, the Constitution eliminated the states altogether, placing governance of the citizens directly under the Confederation government. In its place, Rev. Marx formulated the moiety system. inspired by the government structure of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. A group of households would voluntarily unify into a single entity, a moiety, whose sole function would be to select a Senator to represent every household in their moiety. Each household would reserve the right to request a Senator be replaced, or vote on their confidence in that Senator. With the moiety system, the Senate was established with a smaller elective body than any previous legislature and more general representation of the entire nation. Many of the powers of the Senate were taken either directly from the United States Constitution or were codifications of powers granted to the provisional legislature during the provisional government.