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Bill #42

Impeachment Trial Amendment

First Senator Taylor avatar
Written by
First Senator Taylor
@taylor8384
⚖ Active law
Status
Active Law
Originated in Chamber
Senate
Type
Senate Procedure
Sponsors
None
Summary
Fixes who presides over the Senate.

Amendments

Bill History
  1. Passed into law as a Senate procedure during Senate Emergency Session #4.

  2. This bill is an amendment to bill #1.

  3. Submitted to Senate Emergency Session #4

IMPEACHMENT TRIAL AMENDMENT

Authors: Taylor

Whereas, the courts opined that them presiding over the trial was probably unconstitutional or some shit.

Purpose: Bill #5 shall be amended:

Underlined Text in Blue to be Added

Text in Red and Strikethrough to be Removed


SENATE PROCEDURES:

THE GOVERNMENT of THE CELTS


ARTICLE I: THE CABINET

Section 1. The Senator Presiding shall be elected by Senators and shall be in charge of overseeing the actions of the Senate.

  1. The Senate may establish additional offices by motion or legislation.
  2. All senate offices shall collectively be referred to as the cabinet.
  3. The procedures below shall apply to any internal position created by the senate unless explicitly stated otherwise in relevant legislation.
  4. All offices shall be vacated at the end of each term unless otherwise provided by law.

Section 2. The first 24 hours after election results are posted at the beginning of a term shall be the candidacy announcement period for those interested in running for the cabinet.

  1. Senators may announce their own candidacy.
  2. Senators may nominate other Senators, but the nominee must publicly accept by the end of the 24 hour period in order to be considered for the election.
  3. All announcements, nominations, and acceptance must be in the #senate-floor channel.

Section 3. The cabinet election shall begin after the conclusion of the candidacy announcement period, shall last 24 hours, and shall be an emoji reaction approval vote.

  1. In a tie, or failure to elect, the winner shall be decided at random by moderation.
  2. A senator may motion to end the cabinet election only if all senators have voted.
  3. An uncontested candidate shall be deemed elected without a vote.

Section 4. In the event of a vacancy the senate shall follow the steps prescribed below:

  1. From the moment of the vacancy a 24 hour timeframe will open for senators to either announce their candidacy or accept nomination in the #senate-floor channel.
  2. The next 24 hour timeframe will consist of an approval vote unless the position is uncontested in which case the candidate is deemed elected without a vote.

ARTICLE II: SENATE SESSION

Section 1. Senate Sessions shall operate on a 5-day cycle with 3 periods.

  1. The start of the cycle is chosen by the Senator Presiding and initiated using ‘-senate session open’ or the appropriate bot command in the #senate-floor channel.
  2. The Senator Presiding may keep any period open past its prescribed time limit.
  1. The Senate may force a period to close with a 3/5 vote in favor given that the minimum timeframe for each period has passed.

Section 2. The first 48 hours shall be the proposal period.

  1. During this period Senators may propose bills and motions.
  2. Bills must be written onto a google doc, and be submitted using ‘-senate submit’ or the appropriate bot command in the #senate-floor channel or the #bot channel.
  3. In the event of no bot; the bill document link must be posted in the #senate-floor channel.
  4. Any bill passed by the Commons, that has not been introduced to the Senate, may be considered by the Senate.
  5. All bills will be added to a google sheet by the Senator Presiding or their delegate.
  6. The Senator Presiding may end the period & prevent further submissions by using ‘-senate session lock’ or the appropriate bot command once 48 hours have transpired.

Section 3. The 48 hours after the end of the proposal period shall be the discussion period.

  1. Up until the end of this period, senators may adjust/amend their proposed bills.

i. Following each edit in the google doc, Senators must announce in the #senate-floor channel that their bill has been edited and how.

ii. The Senator Presiding may use the ‘-bill synchronize’ command or other appropriate bot command to synchronize the changes.

  1. The Senator Presiding may plan a synchronous discussion time on a voice channel.
  2. The Senator Presiding may end the period & prevent further amendment by using ‘-senate session vote’ or the appropriate bot command once 48 hours have transpired.

Section 4. The 24 hours following ‘-senate session vote’ or the appropriate command shall be the voting period.

  1. During this period senators may vote on bills by marking their vote in the google sheet.
  2. The Senator Presiding may close voting early if all senators have voted.
  3. A bill is considered approved if a majority (3/5) of senators vote in favor.
  4. The Senator Presiding may use the appropriate command to end the session.

ARTICLE III: EMERGENCY SESSIONS

Section 1. The Senator Presiding may call an emergency session,

  1. Senators may motion to overrule and cancel the emergency session with a 3/5 vote as long as the motion is made within 24 hours of the emergency session being declared.
  2. They may run concurrent to a regular session and in which case will not be required to use bot commands; the Senator Presiding shall give clear instructions on the step by step process in #senate-floor.
  3. The emergency session shall be a three day cycle; a 24 hour proposal period, 24 hour discussion period, and 24 hour voting period.
  4. The Senator Presiding may keep any period open past its prescribed time limit.

Section 2. The first 24 hours after the emergency session starts shall be the proposal period.

  1. During this period each senator may propose up to three bills.
  2. Bills must be written onto a google doc, and be submitted using the appropriate bot command in the #senate-floor channel or the #bot channel.
  3. In the event of no bot; the bill document link must be posted in the #senate-floor channel and the Senator Presiding shall be pinged.
  4. Any bill passed by the Commons, that has not been introduced to the Senate, may be considered by the Senate.
  5. All bills will be added to a google sheet by the Senator Presiding or their delegate.
  6. The Senator Presiding may end the period & prevent further submissions by declaring so in #senate-floor or by using the appropriate bot command once 24 hours have transpired.

Section 3. The next 24 hours after the proposal period ends shall be the discussion period.

  1. Up until the end of this period, senators may adjust/amend their proposed bills.

i.        Following each edit in the google doc, Senators must announce in the #senate-floor channel that their bill has been edited and how.

ii. The Senator Presiding may use the ‘-bill synchronize’ command or other appropriate bot command to synchronize the changes.

  1. The Senator Presiding may plan a synchronous discussion time on a voice channel.
  2. The Senator Presiding may end the period & prevent further amendment by declaring so in #senate-floor or by using ‘-senate session vote’ or the appropriate bot command once 24 hours has transpired.

Section 4. The next 24 hours after the discussion period ends shall be the voting period.

  1. During this period senators may vote on bills by marking their vote in the google sheet.
  2. The Senator Presiding may close voting early if a majority decision has been reached on each bill.
  3. A bill is considered approved if a majority (3/5) of senators vote in favor.
  4. The Senator Presiding may use the appropriate command to end the session.

ARTICLE IV: IMPEACHMENT TRIALS

Section 1. After the Commons initiates impeachment proceedings the Senate shall hold a trial in order to determine whether to convict or acquit the defendant.

Section 2. The trial shall take place outside of any senate session; a channel for the trial shall be determined.

Section 3. The Senator Presiding shall act as the presiding official of the trial.Senators shall act as a jury while the Chief Justice presides.

  1. If the Senator Presiding is the defendant then the senator with the highest received number of votes in the previous election shall serve. If they are unwilling or also a defendant then the presiding official shall be the next willing & available senator with the highest number of votes.If the Chief Justice is the defendant the other justices - or remaining justice - shall serve.
  2. The Senator Presiding may designate another senator to be the presiding official as long as said senator is not the defendant.If the entire Supreme Court is the defendant then the Senator Presiding shall preside.
  3. If the defendant is a senator, said senator shall retain their power to vote in the ruling.

Section 4. The appropriate entities shall submit to the Senate a prosecutor and defense for the defendant.

Section 5. The conduct, timeline, and rules for a trial shall be determined by the presiding official; however both prosecution and defense must have an opportunity to argue their case.

Section 6. The Senate shall vote to convict or acquit the defendant based on the charge(s) at the conclusion of arguments.

  1. A vote of 3/5 in favor of convictions shall be deemed sufficient.


ARTICLE V: MOTIONS

Section 1. The Senate shall have the ability to enact administrative motions.

  1. Administrative motions are listed below in Section 2 through Section 7.
  2. Senators may make a motion by pinging the Senator Presiding and stating their motion.
  3. The Senator Presiding must determine if the motion is in order within 12 hours.
  4. If the motion is out of order then the Senator Presiding must explain why.
  5. If the motion is acceptable then the Senator Presiding must ping all senators, restate the motion, and hold a vote to approve or reject the motion.
  6. A motion is approved with 3/5 vote in favor unless otherwise stated; and a motion fails if it does not get approved within 24 hours.
  7. Motions that result in a bill becoming law should be recorded in the google sheet.

Section 2. Motion to Close the ___ period: To end a period of any type of session.

Section 3. Motion to Extend the ___ period: To extend a period of any type of session.

Section 4. Motion to Fast Track: Used on a single piece of legislation at a time, this motion can make a bill immediately have a 24 hour voting period [requires 4/5 to approve this motion].

Section 5. Motion to Quick-Override: To override a presidential veto; this motion should explicitly name a vetoed bill; upon a 4/5 vote in approval the veto is considered overturned.

Section 6. Motion to Approve with Unanimous Consent: Used on a single piece of legislation at a time, this motion automatically passes the named bill if all five senators approve within 24 hours & there is no vote in opposition.

Section 7. Motion to Suspend the Rules: Briefly suspends procedural rules to achieve an objective [requires unanimous approval to adopt this motion].


ARTICLE VI: MISCELLANEOUS

Section 1. The Senator Presiding retains the power to use emoji votes, voice votes, text channel votes, or standard google sheet votes.

Section 2. The Senator Presiding shall act as legal counsel for the Senate in absence of a formal position tasked with such responsibility; this responsibility may be delegated.

Section 3. No lawsuit shall be filed in the name of the Senate without a vote approving such; any case filed by a member of the senate does not entail responsibility to the entirety of the senate.

Section 4. If a senator has been inactive for ten (10) or more days, as determined by the Supreme Court, the member may be removed.

Section 5. These procedures shall remain in effect henceforth; amendments may be approved.

Section 6. The Senator Presiding may also be referred to as the First Senator.

Section 7. These procedures may be edited to reflect proper grammar & formatting without the need for a vote as long as such edits do not change the substance of rules.