1. Preamble. the Purposes of This Constitution Include the Following

Constitution

of the Band Republic

1. Preamble. The purposes of this Constitution include the following:

1.1 To unite the peoples of the Band Republic into a permanent Union;

1.2 To establish justice;

1.3 To ensure domestic tranquility;

1.4 To provide for the common defense;

1.5 To promote the common welfare;

1.6 To secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and to our posterity.

For these purposes we the people hereby do ordain and establish this Constitution, providing that any official action inconsistent with them is void.

2. Names. The name of the Nation shall be the Band Republic, or the Union. If there are other nations with a similar name the Diet may adopt a qualifying phrase to distinguish this one from the others.

3. Bill of Immunities. The Bill of Immunities established as of the ratification of this Constitution shall restrict powers of government at all levels. Immunities do not include entitlements to a sufficient amount of a scarce resource. Further amendments to the Bill must be ratified by a two-thirds vote of both houses of the Diet to take effect in the Union.

3. Jurisdictions. The three kinds of jurisdiction shall be personal, or personam, subject matter, or subjectam, and territorial, or locum, and all three must be proved in any trial.

3.1 The principal political subdivision of the Union is the land, which may also be called a state, to distinguish it as a member of the Union, which has voting representation in the houses, or camera, of the legislature, or Diet. With the exception of certain powers delegated to the Diet to legislate for persons on state territory, states shall have exclusive dominion over their own land and peoples, including the power of eminent domain. The territory that combines states and dominions shall be called the Commonwealth.

3.2 Territories not organized into states, over which the Diet has exclusive legislative jurisdiction, without voting representation in the Diet, shall be called dominions.

3.2.1 The Diet may establish one dominion with an area not to exceed 256 square kiloyards to serve at the Capital of the Union.

3.3 The government of each state or subdivision thereof, shall have a written constitution, and shall be organized into legislative, executive, and judicial branches, which may be further divided into houses or departments. Each land shall have a diet of two camera, a landrat and a landtag.

3.4 The Diet of each state, according to its Constitution, may further subdivide itself into legislative, executive, judicial, administrative, and militia districts. The top level of such subdivision shall be called a county, and the bottom level a ward, which shall contain about 3000 citizens.

3.5 Lands controlled by the Band but not full member states or dominions, shall be called protectorates, with all the attributes of an independent nation except for control of defense and foreign relations.

3.6 Lands bound to the Band by treaties of alliance shall be called allies.

3.7 Lands held by conquest or liberation shall be called occupates, which shall be regarded as dominions while occupied.

3.8 Territories not suited for occupation or settlement, such as the high seas, or which are in a lawless state where no government operates, shall be called nonstates, and are subject to the law of nations.

4. Person, denizen, citizen, elector, and militia.

4.1 A person is a legal role, which may be played by any entity that can have rights, powers, and duties that it can assert in a court of law.

4.2 A denizen is an individual with immunity from being denied or impeded from remaining at one’s domicile, and from returning to it after a sojourn elsewhere.

4.3 A citizen is a denizen who may, if otherwise qualified, have the privilege to vote and hold office, including the office of juror or elector.

4.3.1 A natural born citizen is one born on the soil of a state or dominion.

4.3.2 A naturalized citizen is one made a citizen by a statute.

4.4 An elector is a citizen of at least eighteen years of age who was born in or has been a resident of the election jurisdiction for at least six months, and is not presently incarcerated in a penal institution for conviction of a crime.

4.5 Militia is defense activity by citizens or legal residents, who are to be regarded as temporary citizens with limited privileges. It is the duty associated with the social contract that creates society; all citizens or legal residents fit for militia duty shall be subject to call-up, organization, and training, unless they hold offices that take priority over militia duties, or are disabled by due process of law. Jury duty shall be regarded as a form of militia duty. Those active in militia may not be kept in a called up status beyond the duration of an emergency.

4.6 A resident of a polity is an adult individual who is physically present om the soil of a polity, and who is thereby subject to the constitutional laws thereof.

4.7 All persons while they are on the national soil of the Union, except for duly certified foreign diplomats, are subject to this Constitution and constitutional laws, and shall be deemed as having taken a oath or affirmation to "Preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the Union against all enemies, foreign or domestic".

4.8 A trust settlor, trustee, beneficiary, and a trust itself shall each be deemed as distinct persons in any court of law of the Union and any State, the trust represented therein by the trustee personally, but liability for debts shall be limited ti the assets of the trust. The Union, and corporations, shall be deemed a kind of trust.

5. Fetura is the default method of selecting public officials, unless a constitution should provide otherwise, consisting of alternating rounds of random selection (sortition) and fitness screening or election, each of which reduces the size of the candidate pool, until the final selection of the officials. The final round may be either sortition or election or fitness screening. The purpose is to dispel the undue influence of monied interests and the entrenchment of officials in their offices.

6 Structure. Government shall be divided into three branches.

6.1 All legislative power to which national individuals are subject, with the exception of the executive veto, shall be vested in a Diet, which shall be divided into two camera or chambers, a Bandrat and a Bandtag. They shall conduct business according to rules of procedure they shall adopt by a vote of two-thirds of each body, which shall include power to select their presidents and other officials.

6.1.1 Such legislative power, may not be subdelegated to staff, administrators, magistrates, or courts, but

6.1.2 Executive officials may issue directives or regulations to government employees or contractors under their supervision, which directives or regulations shall be subject to review by the Diet or the courts, but such directives or regulations shall not apply to national individuals outside of government.

6.2 The Diet structure.

6.2.1 The Bandrat shall consist of two rators representing each Land, each of which shall cast one vote.

6.2.2 The Bandtag shall consist initially of 200 tagtors, representing districts within each Land, divided in proportion to the numbers of electors in each Land, each of which shall cast a number of votes equal to the number of votes the tagtor received in the most recent election. The number of tagtors shall be increased by one for each Land, beyond 200, that is admitted into the Union.

6.3 Executive power shall be vested in an Executive Branch, which shall be headed by three offices, which may be held by the same individual:

6.3.1 Leiter. The chief spokesman for the government, to the people and to foreign nations.

6.3.2 Executor. The enforcer of lawful acts of the Diet and courts of the Judicial Branch.

6.3.3 Protector. The Commander-in-Chief of military and police forces at the Union level.

6.4 Judicial power shall be vested in a Judicial Branch, which shall consist of one Supreme Court, and such subordinate courts as the Diet shall create, and define the jurisdictions of each. But there must always be a court of competent jurisdiction to decide any judicial issue that is conveniently located to the parties.

6.4.1 All richters or judges shall be selected by fetura into a single pool of richters, in which they shall serve for life, subject to good behavior, from which pool richters shall be selected by fetura to serve on each court for terms set by the Diet, except for two years in the Supreme Court, and selected by fetura to hear particular cases.

6.4.2 Judicial officers shall consist of all persons sworn to duty in a court of the United States or subdivisions thereof, including but not limited to court presidents, judges, magistrates, clerks, bailiffs, attorneys, witnesses, trial jurors, or recorders.

6..4.3 Subsequently appointed presidents, judges, magistrates, and clerks shall not be appointed permanently to a particular court, but periodically reassigned to courts and cases by sortition, with presidents or judges reassigned at random to courts each year, and at random to cases, other officials other than jurors assigned to courts for up to four years, and trial jurors selected at random to each case.

6.4.3 The Supreme Court shall have ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all cases, and may hear and decide any case in which they can provide property, injunctive, or declarative relief.

6.4.2.1 The Supreme Court shall consist of 28 richters, selected by fetura from the judicial pool to serve for a term of two years.

6.4.2.2 Each case shall initially receive oyer and terminer from a panel of three richters selected at random from the members of the Supreme Court.

6.4.2.3 Each case decided by a three-richter panel may be appealed to a panel of nine richters, selected at random from members of the Supreme Court, if three of the nine agree to hear it.

6.4.2.4 Each case decided by a nine-richter panel may be appealed to an en banc panel of twenty-seven of the members of the Supreme Court, selected at random from members of the Supreme Court, if six of the 28 agree to hear it.

6.4.3 In any multi-richter panel, Union or state, the decision in any case in which government shall be a party, must be unanimous to sustain the exercise of power of that government against the claim that government does not lawfully have that power.

6.4.4 The Supreme Court shall establish rules of procedure for all Union courts, at any jurisdiction or level, although subordinate courts may establish their own supplementary rules of procedure.

6.4.5 Inquestry. An inquestry shall consist of 23 citizens, with some spares, read in the law, selected at random from adult citizens of its jurisdiction, headed by a foreperson elected by its members, with power to hear any complaint from any person about the actions or conduct of any person or agency and to present its findings to the public or to appropriate agencies. Such findings may include an indictment or removal of official immunity, appointment of a prosecutor of the complaint, civil or criminal, in a court designated by it, and no individual shall be prosecuted for a crime without an indictment or presentment of an inquestry.

6.4.6 Jury. A trial jury shall consist of 12 citizens, with some spares, selected at random from all adult citizens in its jurisdiction, headed by a foreperson elected by its members, with the power to subpoena witnesses and testimony, hear all evidence, argument and pleadings, and to decide the complaint, civil or criminal, but it must be unanimous to find guilt in a criminal case, and failure to agree on conviction shall be deemed acquittal. All crimes for which the penalty shall be death or more than six months incarceration shall be tried by jury, even if the defendant does plead guilty.

7 Selection Procedures

7.1 Census. Within ten years after adoption of this Constitution, and on each tenth year thereafter, there shall be conducted a census of all inhabitants of the Union, to identify the name and count every denizen and citizen, elector and those likely to reach age for voting, physical condition of each, fitness for militia, including likely future fitness for those expected to reach militia age.

7.1.1 Within one year after the report of the recent census, the boundaries of wards shall be drawn or redrawn to contain approximately 3000 inhabitants, but not less than 2500 nor more than 4000, unless the state shall not contain that number. The lengths of ward boundaries shall be minimized, they shall be contiguous and simply connected with no holes. They shall not cross the boundaries of counties. All parts of a county must be placed in a ward.

7.1.2 For the first selection of officials that depend on census numbers, before a formal census can be conducted, an informal census shall be conducted by calling assemblies in each major town, counting the numbers of those who attend, and adding the counts to the estimated total.

7.2 Selection of the Bandtag.

7.2.1 Within a year after each census and prior to the next selection the number of tagtors which a land or state may select shall be calculated by the number of electors in the state, multiplied by the number of members of the Bandtag, divided by the number of electors in the Union, rounded up to the nearest whole number.

7.2.2 The state or land is to be divided into a number of Bandtag districts equal to the number of members the state is entitled to send to the Bandtag. The districts shall be composed of collections of wards that are equal in electoral population to within a margin of error of 20 percent, with a minimal outer boundary, contiguous, and simply connected. It should be attempted to avoid splitting counties among districts.

7.2.3 Each ward shall elect one candidate for a pool of candidates in its district, not necessarily a resident of the ward. Five of those candidates shall then be selected by lot to be the nominees for tagtor from that district. The electors shall then cast votes for one of those nominees, or for any other qualified person. The candidate who receives the most votes shall be the tagtor for that district, but in all proceedings of the Bandtag shall cast a number of votes equal to the number of votes that candidate received.

7.2.4 No person shall serve as tagtor who is not a citizen of the Commonwealth and has not attained the age of twenty-five years, or been a resident of his district for at least one year.

7 2 5 If a vacancy occurs in any position, that vacancy shall be filled by the next person in the line of designated successors, and if that line is exhausted, writs of election to fill such vacancy shall be issued by the executive authority of the state.

7.3 Selection of the Bandrat

7.3.1 Selection shall be at intervals of six years.

7.3.2 Each ward shall elect one candidate for a pool of candidates in its district, not necessarily a resident of the ward or district. Five of those candidates shall then be selected by lot to be the nominees for rator for the state. The electors shall then cast votes for one of those nominees, or for any other qualified person. The candidate who receives the most votes shall be the rator for that state, but in all proceedings of the Bandsrat shall cast one vote.

7.3.4 No person shall serve as rator who is not a citizen of the Commonwealth and has not attained the age of thirty years, and been a resident of the Commonwealth for a total of least five years.

7 3.5 If a vacancy occurs in any position, that vacancy shall be filled by the next person in the line of designated successors, and if that line is exhausted, writs of election to fill such vacancy shall be issued by the executive authority of the state.

7.3.6 The initial commissioners of election shall draw by lot whether each each rator shall initially serve for two years, four, or a full six. If initially two or four years then subsequent rators in that position shall serve for six years.

7.4 Selection of the Judiciary

7.4.1 Term of office shall be for life, subject to good behavior or fitness to serve.

7.4.2 Each ward shall elect one candidate for a pool of candidates for richter in its district, not necessarily a resident of the ward or district. Five of those candidates shall then be elected by the nominees for richter for the district. Vacancies in the Union judicial pool shall then be drawn by lot from those elected candidates.

7.4.3 Each position on each court shall be drawn by lot from the Union judicial pool, and when sitting as sub banc panels, shall be assigned by lot to particular cases.

7.4.4 No person shall serve as richter who is not a citizen of the Commonwealth and has not attained the age of forty-five years.

7.5 Selection of executive officials

7.5.1 The Leiter, Executor, and Protector shall each serve for a term of four years, but may be re-elected by a popular vote for an additional second term once. Selection shall be made at four-year intervals on a date set by the Diet. A single individual may serve as any two or all three of these offices.

7.5.2 Each ward shall elect one candidate for a pool of candidates for leiter, executor, or protector in its district, not necessarily a resident of the ward or district. Five of those candidates shall then be elected by by the nominees for those positions for the district. A number of executive electors, equal to the number of tagtors for the state, for each position shall be selected by lot from among those five, and each shall cast a ballot for one candidate for each position within its group. The candidate receiving a majority of the votes shall be declared selected, but if no one receives a majority then the executive electors shall vote again until a majority is attained, but the Diet shall designate the dates and places where all these selections are to be performed.