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Constitution of the Kingdom of Cascadia

ARTICLE VII: PARLIAMENT

Section 1.

All legislative power in the confederation government of the Kingdom of Cascadia shall be vested in a Parliament, consisting of the Sovereign and a House of Delegates. Every Parliament shall continue for five years from the date of Election, and no longer, unless it be sooner dissolved by the Sovereign.

Section 2.

The House of Delegates shall consist of two-hundred-and-fifty Members. The number of Members sent from each Commonwealth shall be apportioned according to the population of the citizens in each Commonwealth, an exact count of which the Kingdom shall cause to be determined once every ten years. It shall be the right and duty of each Commonwealth to determine the method by which Members representing that Commonwealth shall be selected.

Section 3. Powers and Privileges of Members.

A. The privileges, immunities, and powers to be held, enjoyed, and exercised by the House of Delegates, and the members thereof, shall be defined by the House of Delegates, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution. All laws passed by Parliament shall apply equally to the House and to its Members as to the confederation and citizens at large.

B. The Members of the House of Delegates shall, during the time for which they were elected, receive a compensation for their services to be paid out of the Treasury of the Kingdom of Cascadia, and to be determined by law. However, no increase in compensation for Members of the House of Delegates shall come into effect without there first being a General Election.

C. The Members shall, in all cases except felony, treason, or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the House, and in going to and returning from the House; and for any speech and debate in the House, they shall not be questioned at any other place.

D. Parliament shall assemble within a period of thirty days following the date of a General Election, unless otherwise provided for before the previous dissolution by an Act of Parliament.

Section 4.

Parliament, upon first assembling after a General Election, shall proceed with all practicable speed to elect one of its members to be Speaker, who shall preside at all meetings of the House of Delegates. The House of Delegates shall have the sole power to choose the Speaker and all other officers, and to establish the rules of the House.

Section 5.

Parliament shall not, without the consent of the Sovereign, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than the Seat of Government of the Kingdom. Parliament shall not delegate its legislative authority, either whole or in part, to any other person, body, or bureau.

Section 6.

Except during emergency sessions during a declared state of war, all deliberations of the legislature shall be open to public view and record.

Section 7. Acts of Parliament.

A. The House of Delegates shall have the power and duty-

1. to protect the rights of the people to their person and property;
2. to provide and maintain naval and air forces, to raise and support an army, and to make rules for the government and regulation of the land, naval, and air forces, for the defence of the Kingdom and people;
3. to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Kingdom of Cascadia, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions.
4. to establish uniform laws of naturalisation, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the Kingdom.
5. to coin money, the value of which shall be fixed to a gold standard, and to fix the standards of weights and measures.
6. to provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the Kingdom.
7. to establish laws for patents and copyrights.
8. to constitute courts inferior to the Royal Court of Appeals.
9. to define and punish crimes on the high seas, in the air, and in space, and offenses against the laws of nations.
10. to exercise exclusive legislation over Kingdom property in the Commonwealths, such property which is not owned by the Kingdom at the time of the adoption of this Constitution to be purchased only by consent of the legislative body of the Commonwealth in which the property is located;
11. to borrow money on the credit of the Kingdom of Cascadia; and,
12. to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the forgoing powers and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the Kingdom of Cascadia, or in any officer or department thereof, provided that no law imposing greater restrictions on the people than needed for the attainment of this end shall be permitted.

B. The writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended.

C. No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed.

D. Every law, or resolution having the force of law, shall relate to just one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title. Each law, before being passed, must be read aloud, at normal speed, before a quorum of the House of Delegates. These provisions may not be evaded by attempting to give the force of law to documents that are not laws passed by the procedures herein defined.

E. Every law, or resolution having the force of law, shall include in its provisions that that law shall cease to have effect either two, five, or seven years after the passage of that law or resolution.

Section 8. Provisions for Appropriation and Taxation.

A. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any Commonwealth to any other Commonwealth.

B. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one Commonwealth over those of another; nor shall goods bound to or from one Commonwealth be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties to another.

C. No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law. A regular public statement and account of receipts and expenditures shall be made annually.

D. Parliament shall appropriate no money from the Treasury except by two-thirds vote of the House of Delegates, unless it be for the purpose of paying its own expenses or contingencies; or for the payment of just claims against the Kingdom of Cascadia, the justice of which shall have been judicially declared by a tribunal for the investigation of claims against the Government, which it is hereby made the duty of Parliament to establish; except that no public funds shall be used to satisfy judgments against individual agents of the state.

E. All bills appropriating money shall specify in Kingdom currency the exact amount of each appropriation and the purposes for which it is to be made; appropriation bills shall concern only spending of monies and shall not mandate any other action or conduct, nor shall any bill except a general budget bill contain more than one item of appropriation, and that for one expressed purpose. Parliament shall grant no extra compensation to any public contractor, officer, agent, or servant, after such contract shall have been made or such service rendered.

F. Within three years of the ratification of this Constitution, Parliament shall repeal, cease to levy, and make no further laws to levy, any and all taxes on personal incomes, capital gains, inheritances, estates, property, and/or gifts.

G. The Sovereign shall propose, and the House of Delegates shall adopt, for each two-year fiscal period, a budget balanced between projected revenues and expenditures. Parliament may waive the provisions of this Title for any fiscal period for which a declaration of war may be in effect.

H. Parliament shall have the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises for revenue necessary to pay the debts, provide for the common defence, and carry on the government of the Kingdom of Cascadia, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution. All duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the Kingdom. No bounties shall be granted from the Treasury, nor shall any duties or taxes on imports from foreign nations be laid to foster, promote, or protect any occupation or branch of industry. Neither this nor any other clause in the Constitution shall be construed to grant to Parliament the power to appropriate money for any internal improvement intended to facilitate commerce, except that such duties shall be laid on the commerce facilitated thereby, as may be necessary to pay the costs and expenses thereof.

Section 8. Provisions for Free Enterprise and Private Property.

A. Government Utilities

1. The Government of the Kingdom of Cascadia shall not engage in any business, professional, commercial, financial or banking, or industrial enterprise, except as specified in this Constitution.
2. The activities of the Government of the Kingdom of Cascadia which violate the intents and purposes of this Title, including those which may have been assumed from the Governments of the United States of America or Canada, or any state or province thereof, shall, within a period of three years from the ratification of this Constitution, be either sold whole or in part to private individuals or corporations, or else be liquefied and cease to function, and the properties and facilities affected sold.

B. The Government of the Kingdom of Cascadia shall not maintain any paramilitary or armed police forces other than those necessary for the security of Government-owned properties and the investigation of crimes committed on those properties, and the defending of the borders of the Kingdom. Federal law-enforcement activity shall consist solely of assistance to the Commonwealths in the investigation of criminal activity.

C. Within three years of the ratification of this Constitution, Parliament and the Commonwealths shall repeal all existing, and create no new -

1. zoning laws, which may be replaced by restrictive covenants or other voluntary contracts;
2. rent control laws and regulations; and,
3. laws permitting ‘eminent domain’ and all forms of condemnation of property.

Section 9. Provisions for Education.

A. Within three years of the ratification of this Constitution, Parliament and the Commonwealths shall repeal all laws regulating or otherwise concerning the following areas of educational practice and policy:

1. involuntary assignments to government-operated schools, including compulsory busing.
2. the right of parents to educate their children at home, or in non-traditional ways.
3. regulation or licensing of private and parochial schools, as well as taxpayer subsidisation of private educational institutions.
4. taxpayer-funded pre-school or daycare programs.

B. The Role of the Government of the Kingdom of Cascadia

1. The Kingdom of Cascadia shall not provide funding to any Commonwealth or local public education system or bureaucracy.
2. The Government shall have the power to recommend improvements or changes in Commonwealth educational systems. However, neither the Government, nor any department of government, nor Parliament, shall have the power to require Commonwealth compliance with Government recommendations, nor shall any government-operated education program or system be administered or directed above the Commonwealth level.

Section 10. Approval or Veto of Legislation.

A. Every bill that shall have passed the House of Delegates shall be presented to the Sovereign, and every bill shall require the assent of the Sovereign to become law. If the Sovereign approves he shall sign it; but if not he shall return it with his objections to the House of Delegates, which may proceed to reconsider it.

B. The Sovereign may approve any appropriation or provision and disapprove any other appropriation or provision within the same bill. In such case, he shall, in signing the bill, designate the appropriation or provision disapproved; and shall return a copy of such provision or appropriation to the House of Delegates, which, if it reconsiders it, shall reconsider each item individually.

C. Each provision disapproved by the Sovereign shall require approval of two-thirds of the House in order to be presented again to the Sovereign. The Sovereign shall have the same right to approve or disapprove any bill, or provision of a bill, upon its second presentation to him.

D. If a bill or provision be twice vetoed by the Sovereign, the House may override that veto by passing the bill a third time, a two-fifths majority being sufficient for passage.

up shall be subject to biennial review by the Sovereign and the House of Delegates, and may be terminated by the consent of both.

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