Term 1 ~ Judiciary : Interpereting the Great Experiment!

Well, In place of gratitude for seeking to fix the problem, admit being a bit blunt, I get sour comments on spoiling the mad max anarchosyndicalist paradise. This JR is to nail in all holes, and make people crystal clear about the integrity of the registry.
I am amazed so few people care about it, given rack records in similar cases.

Provolution said:

Well, In place of gratitude for seeking to fix the problem, admit being a bit blunt, I get sour comments on spoiling the mad max anarchosyndicalist paradise. This JR is to nail in all holes, and make people crystal clear about the integrity of the registry.
I am amazed so few people care about it, given rack records in similar cases.

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Could we veer away from personal gratification and focus on the nature of this thread, judicial matters?

The 3 Justice still need to rule on this, I was just stating my opinion.

provo we cant fill in these "black holes" we just interperet somehting that isnt clear

Well, you interpret for this term, and I fill in the black holes in the constitution, with the help of constructive, target oriented citizens.

I, too, agree with the court procedures as presented by our esteemed Chief Justice. Let's get this court underway!


Ashburnham,
Judge Advocate.

Judical review 2.

As the supposed VP Donsig is already mentioned in a different review, I am posting this review on the violation of the Article of Vacant Offices.

Donsig has not posted a notification of a leave of absence (maximum 7 days)
Donsig has not posted in general the last 7 days, reference to DGVI citizen registry, the last 5 days, reference to DGVI laws for not posting in 3 days call for the Judiciary state the Office is considered vacant and a new official appointed.

Question. Has Donsig violated the following Article based on failure to post both acceptance AND any other post, transgressing the 3 day limit for the Judiciary to define the vacancy of a vacant office?
Did Donsig Post a Notification of Absence?

2. Vacant Offices
a. An official or Justice may declare themselves to be Absent for
a period of time. This period may not exceed 1 week. During
this time, the deputy or pro-tem will act with all power and
duties of that office, surrendering them to the official or
Justice when they return or at the end of the planned absence,
whichever comes first.

b. Should an official fail to post in the DG forum for 3 days in
a thread related to their area without prior notice, the
Judiciary may declare that office Vacant.

c. If a Justice has not posted on any active Judicial matter for
three days, the remaining Justices may declare the Justice
Vacant. If all three Justices fail to post on any active
Judicial matter for 3 days, the President may declare all
Judicial offices Vacant, and immediately appoint a new Chief
Justice.

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Read this constitutional part on the Vacancy. Officials need to post at least every 3 days, and if they don't, the Judiciary need to ask the President to find a replacement.
So now we are having two parallel cases, one of citizen registry AND the posting requirements by officials, not to mention the notified absence which could have been a secutity vent. A neutral Judiciary would replace the VP in such a situation.

I, as Chief Justice, find that Provolutions JRs(both) have merit. They will be added to the docket and summarized(possibly later today)
I would like to ask for any citizen input.

a neutral Judiciary would not remove anyone until after the JRs are complete provo. Just because you file 2, doesnt mean it will make it go any faster, it will actually take longer now.

In the matter of DGVIJR1 the central questio here is wether or not a person needs to be a citizen in order to be appointed. Our constitution has this to say on citizens:

code said:

We, the people of Fanatannia, in order to create an atmosphere of
friendship, cooperation, and pride, establish this Constitution of our
beloved country. We uphold the beliefs that each citizen must have an
equal voice in the government and ruling of our country, that
government itself is a construct of and servant to the people, that
rules, regulations, and laws should be established to facilitate the
active participation of the people and to make possible the dreams and
desires of the citizens.

Article A. All Civfanatics Forum users who register in the Citizen
Registry are citizens of our country. Citizens have the
right to assemble, the right to free movement, the right
to free speech, the right to a fair and speedy trial, the
right to representation, the right to name units (within
the naming convention), the right to request an
investigation into possible violations of law and the
right to vote.

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There are 2 bold parts that I think need to be considered
beggining is the second bolded section which reads "Citizens have the
right to assemble, the right to free movement, the right
to free speech, the right to a fair and speedy trial, right to representation, the right to name units (within the naming convention), the right to request an investigation into possible violations of law and the right to vote" Nowhere in there does it say that one must be a citizen to hold office. However the first bolded portion reads "We uphold the beliefs that each citizen must have an equal voice in the government and ruling of our country". I would like to say I believe that an equal voice in the government means that all citizens may run for and serve in any office. Under this standard one must be citizen. Also the right to vote can be construed as the right to serve Since the constitution does not say that a non-citizen must can serve , and the above defines the rights of a citizen as being able to participate in Gov't I believe that one must be a citizen in order to hold office.

In the matter of JR2
It should not be required that Donsig post acceptance since the fact he applied for the job can be considered acceptance. However the fact he is not a citizen should make the appointment invalid, and the fact that he has not posted for three days makes him absent because he is by definition an official, even though I personally believe that the VP and deputies should not be put under the same absence requirments

MhCarver

Being a citizen is needed to get a "fair and speedy trial" and "representation", and the courts should not even consider non-citizens. And for the offices, in the spirit of the Demogame, no one is meant to have an office without Citizenship, and reading the entire preamble may translate an "equal voice in the government and ruling of our country" AND "representation" as key arguments for not letting non-citizens holding offices. The key principle here, is that non-registered players from previous DGs are not excluding new citizens from participating from a real office.

Also, the approval poll is also technically valid as Daveshack once again Appointed Donsig 7 March. 04.09 AM. Read Presidential Thread.

I agree that a person must be registered as a citizen to hold an office, but respectfully suggest that we should use a "grace period" instead of just throwing someone out with essentially no warning at all. This would go for any case where it is discovered that someone is not a citizen. Even on vacancies, in prior games we followed due process, which consisted of the CJ or designate attempting to contact the missing person, and a 24 hour delay between the request to declare an official missing and actually declaring the office vacant.

I will also point out that almost 4 days passed between the appointment in question and the filing of these reviews. I have not scanned every thread to find the first mention of the discrepancy, but as soon as official notice was taken of the problem, I did take immediate action to start a 24 hour grace period within which Donsig must respond or the (previous) appointment will be withdrawn. This was not a "re-appointment" as Provolution argues, instead it was merely setting a deadline within which a response must be received for the existing appointment to remain valid.

I will also bring to the Justices attention that we do not seem to have a rule mandating there has to be an appointment at all, or a timeframe within which the appointment must be made. Also, not that it can be used as actual precedent, but we had a case in a previous demogame where an attempt was made to argue that if an office was never filled for the term, then any appointment was a mid-term appointment. The ruling in that case was that the office had never been filled, so it can't be considered vacant mid-term, it is vacant at beginning of term.

Daveshack, you posted this today a few hours ago, where you tasked me to post an approval poll as a better remedy, and I loyally followed that advice to letter.

On the legality of the appointment, we have had cases of nominations being accepted by non-registered people, and typically the problem is resolved by having that person register. Nominations have to be explicitly accepte in public. Likewise this same principle should be used for appointments. I will set a 24 hour time for donsig to register and accept the appointment, after which the appointment must be assumed to be unaccepted, and a new candidate will be chosen.

There were three candidates who applied via PM. The choice was a very difficult one because all three are unable to serve as DP at present (don't have Conquests) and have somewhat similar interests. I had written draft appointment announcements for all three at various times. I finally decided on donsig because his interest in making sure that citizens have full information in the forum coincided with one of the things I was hoping a vice president could do.

Provolution, you had a better mechanism of challenging this appointment at your disposal. Just post an approval poll "do you approve of this appointment Y/N/A?", private, and 48 hour duration.

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You gav him 24 hours, which is a de facto and de jure appointment, since reminders are not covered in our legislation, appointment is the only applicable term for all this.
Regardless, it is a matter of trust, being 2nd in command is an earnt trust, and the citizenry has the right to contest that. Now I observe that someone is trying to buy Donsig time, after having let the office stand empty for well a full week.

Daveshack, if you are honorable, you let the approval poll run its course, and sustain the fact that you indeed made an appointment, and almost a week is too long a time for us to accept the nominee, as the non-citizen nominee is not fulfilling his tasks.
Especially since you recommended the approval poll yourself, I expect you to let people speak their mind through this approved approval poll with private vote, and let your Judiciary accept it as the Voice of the Peoples verdict in this situation.

Chief Justice Ruling of JR#1
It clearly says in the Code of Laws that it must be a citizen appointed to a deputy.

4. Deputies
a. For all positions with deputies, the leader may appoint the
citizen of their choice as their deputy.

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Thus the appointment of donsig is invalid, and the confirmation poll is still invalid for multiple reasons. However upon donsig registering, the President may reappoint him, in which time a valid confirmation poll may be posted. This will also be considered a mid term appointment, thus donsig must be approved by the majority of the consuls as in this article:

2. Vice President - Assistant to the President. He/she may
take over the President's tasks when the President is
absent. If the President should be removed from office
for any reason the Vice President will then take the
position of President and appoint a Vice President.
The Vice President must be approved by a majority of
the consuls, if the Vice President is appointed mid-term.

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I also hope that in the future JRs can be handled out of court(which could have easily been done here)

summary:
The appointment of donsig is invalid, however after donsig registers he may be reappointed.

The Chief Justice's Office

Provolution comes before the court asking if a non-citizen may be appointed to a Deputy position.

Citizen comments
The Office of the Public Defender notes the comments by Provolution, blackheart, mhcarver, and DaveShack. All are thanked for their efforts.

Relevant law
Con. Article A: "All Civfanatics Forum users who register in the Citizen Registry are citizens of our country."

CoL. Section 4.a: "... the leader may appoint the citizen of their choice as deputy"

Analysis
At the heart, this is a fairly simple request - is it possible for a non-citizen to be appointed to a deputy position. Clearly, section 4.a of the Code of Laws prevents this, requiring that a citizen be appointed. The method for citizenship is also clear, register in the Citizen Registry thread.

We are not, however, a nation of strict, draconian laws, where only the most severe options are used. We're supposed to be a nation of CFC members with a mutual desire to play a game as a group. Implicit in that desire is mutual respect for other members, and tolerance of minor mistakes. The intent behind this Judicial Review request goes against those precepts. I quote from our preamble: "We, the people of Fanatannia, in order to create an atmosphere of friendship, cooperation and pride..."

To me, part of the spirit of friendship involves allowing others to own up to and correct mistakes. This was not done here. Instead, a viscous and unwarranted onslaught was launched. I am gravely disappointed in this action. Where's the harm in a gentle reminder, a request to that citizen to register themselves. None. Indeed, the amount of respect that citizen would have towards the one making the request is likely to go up. Friends allow friends to correct problems before they become larger issues.

The Judiciary should be an option of last resort, not as the opening salvo. When there is a genuine question about the law - that's a perfectly valid reason to bring to the Judiciary early. However, as I've noted above, the law is pretty clear about this matter - you need to be a citizen to be a deputy (or, for that matter, any official). It's equally clear that this JR is not intended to clarify the law, but to use the Judiciary to push the issue. While it's true that this isn't anything prohibited, and that this use is greatly preferred over a CC (which logically could have been filed over this), it's still clearly a misuse of the Judiciary. I hope to never see such a case again.

Ruling
Anyone appointed to a deputy position must be a citizen of Fanatannia. If it is discovered that they are not a citizen, they must register within 3 days of being notified. Failure to do so results in the nullification of the appointment.

-- Ravensfire, Public Defender

Further note from the Office of the Public Defender:

I've had my opinion written for some time now. When I saw the CJ's ruling was up, I posted mine.

I concur with his Opinion that should the appointment be nullified, the President may reappoint donsig once he registers, and that this is treated as a mid-term appointment.

-- Ravensfire

ARGH!!!! duplicate post - sorry.

"We are a hedge, please move on"
-- a bunch of ninjas

-- Ravensfire

My apologies Mr. Public Defender, I read your pm but didn't know you were posting right now.

Black_Hole said:

My apologies Mr. Public Defender, I read your pm but didn't know you were posting right now.

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Well, it was getting posted before I was going home (which is in 15 minutes), so I only sped my post up by a bit!

Nice opinion though - had to add my extra point after reading yours!

-- Ravensfire

We will need a clarification. The CJ opinion does not mention mid-term appointment, while the PD one does. I maintain that this cannot be considered a mid-term appointment because the office has not yet been validly filled.

Oh, and gotta go make a thread for amending that mid-term appointment thing. Don't know where that came from, it wasn't on the crib notes...

DaveShack said:

We will need a clarification. The CJ opinion does not mention mid-term appointment, while the PD one does. I maintain that this cannot be considered a mid-term appointment because the office has not yet been validly filled.

Oh, and gotta go make a thread for amending that mid-term appointment thing. Don't know where that came from, it wasn't on the crib notes...

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mine did.... Make sure you have your spectacles on Mr. President, o wait... do we have those?

Actually it was an idea of mine, and I put it in the rough draft, and no one complained about it...
By mid term it was meant after the term started....