Limits on Government Power

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XI. LIMITS on GOVERNMENT POWER

A. General Principles

1. The limits to governmental power described herein apply to all levels of government.

2. No law shall establish a religion or promote religious observance, except for the ceremonies of Native Americans under Tribal Corporations.

Active expressions of religious observance offensive to the general public or to the practitioners of another religion or to persons without religious affiliation will be prohibited. Passive displays of religious symbols and expressions of religious affiliation will not be challenged[1].
Religious institutions are subject to local laws pertaining to organizations, except for specific exemptions granted by federal law that cannot favor one religion over another[2].

3. The media shall not be censored or subjected to prior restraint except in a period of declared war or national emergency. Media may criticize and ridicule politicians and political policies constrained only by libel law. Federal law will define the conditions whereby members of the media may protect or must reveal their sources[3].

4. A state of national emergency will exist when declared by the President and confirmed by a majority vote of Senate within 24 hours. A state of national emergency lapses after 90 days unless 14 Senators approve a resolution that the state of national emergency persists, which resolution may be repeated at 90-day intervals[4].

5. No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be enacted.

6. Except as defined in federal law, government records are public property and will be available for examination on a timely basis[5].

7. The government may classify persons by age, sex, and citizenship as identified in the decennial census and by criminal record and by clear evidence of mental incompetence[6].

8. The government may not reference classes of persons by race, ethnic group, belief, life style, political affiliation, social association, or similar characteristic; exceptions are Native Americans who are members of a Tribal Corporation and enemy aliens in a time of declared war[7].

B. Personal Rights

1. Persons shall have the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, which shall not be suspended, except in case of national emergency.

2. Persons shall not suffer any search or seizure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects without a warrant, and no warrant shall be issued by a court without probable cause and without a specific description of the place to be searched and of the persons or things to be seized.

3. Persons have the right to speak out, to assemble peaceably, to protest non-violently, and to petition federal, state, and local government for a redress of grievances.

4. Where authorized by law, persons have the right to speak out, to assemble peaceably, to protest non-violently, and to boycott non-governmental organizations for a redress of grievances[8].

5. Persons and classes of persons shall not suffer unreasoned discrimination by government officials or agencies nor by non-governmental organizations where specifically defined by law. Frivolous claims for individual treatment may be rejected with sanctions[9].

6. Persons have the right of privacy[10]. Laws will restrict how information about persons is distributed between and among different departments of the federal government, state and local governments, and private organizations.

7. Persons have the right to form associations and define the qualifications of members thereof[11]. Laws may restrict the political activities of associations with narrowly defined memberships.

8. A person shall not be held to answer for a felony without the indictment of a grand jury or equivalent, except for a member of the armed forces in time of war.

9. A person shall not be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself or herself; nor be deprived without due process of law of life, liberty, or property; nor be put in jeopardy more than once for the same felony either by one jurisdiction or by multiple jurisdictions.

10. A person accused in a criminal matter shall hear the nature and cause of the accusation and the witnesses for the prosecution; have a prompt, brief, and public trial by an impartial jury selected at random; and have the assistance of counsel and compulsory process for obtaining witnesses for his or her defense.

11. A person shall not have to post excessive bail, pay excessive fines, or endure cruel and unusual punishments.

12. A person shall not be the property of another in slavery nor work for another in involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime imposed under the law.

13. The enumeration of rights herein does not deny or diminish rights not so enumerated.

C. Property Rights

1. Private property may not be taken for public use nor may new restrictions on private use be defined without just compensation.

2. Private property may not be seized as punishment except as a fine imposed under the law nor from a felon except after a legal finding that said property came into possession of said felon in connection with said felony.

3. Except in time of war or national emergency, the price of a product or service shall not be fixed unless: there is only one seller available to the buyers thereof, or multiple sellers act in collusion; or there is only one buyer available to the sellers thereof, or multiple buyers act in collusion[12].

Footnotes

[1] This is an attempt to state what is in fact the balance between the government and religion.

[2] In regard to local laws, churches should follow zoning, health codes, etc. but might be allowed to favor adherents in hiring.

[3] The issue of protecting sources should be thrashed out in legislative debate, not in the courts.

[4] Historians point out that a State of Emergency declared in the 1940’s has never been cancelled. The matter needs definition.

[5] Re open records: a separate provision in Article IV applies to judicial proceedings. A provision below gives persons the right to privacy. The balance must be thrashed out in debate and defined in law.

[6] Laws recognize, e.g., that children need education and special protections and restrictions, that persons lose capabilities in old age, that males and females are physiologically different, that the mentally or emotionally impaired may be unable to exercise all privileges of citizenship, that aliens do not have all the rights and privileges of citizens, and that prisoners and ex-felons have lost certain rights and privileges.

[7] Classifications, whether for preferences or for restrictions, are prohibited. Laws against prejudicial classifications have had a great beneficial effort on our society, but laws that require acts of preference for one group always generate disadvantages to another group. Note that nothing in the above says that special government support cannot be given to a school with relatively poor student test scores or to a neighborhood with a high crime rate. Problems can be addressed, but not in terms of classes of persons.

[8] The right to protest to the government applies to non-governmental organizations only as authorized by law. The extension of “civil rights” to non-governmental agencies by laws can be broad: any service related to travel or licensed by the government and perhaps any enterprise with publicly traded stock and any eleemosynary institution eligible for tax-deductible contributions.

[9] If a student is expelled from school for dying her hair green (in violation of a dress code), the parents should not be able to sue the school without consequences.

[10] The right to personal privacy is a limit on provisions for open records.

[11] Clubs for men only or Christians only or Asians only are permitted, but political activities can be limited, and legislation may permit public protests.

[12] Utilities can be regulated, but rent control is prohibited except in a national emergency.