PREAMBLE

Under Article III Section 5 of the Constitution, the task to "Alter the Articles of Law" falls to the Senate.

Further, consideration must be given to:

Article III Sections 6 and 7, concerning absence of Senators and their deputies.
Article II section 6, concerning absence of the President and Vice president.
Article IV section 3, concening absence of the Supreme Court Justices.

The Senate takes responsibility to draft a law defining "Absence" and the actions that must be taken when an official is absent.

DECISION

By majority, the Senate decides the following:

Definition of "Absent"

- The President is condsidered absent if he fails to respond to a critical issue within 2 days.

- A Supreme Court Justice is condsidered absent if he fails to respond to a critical issue within 3 days.

- A Senator is condsidered absent if he fails to respond to a critical issue within 2 days.

Replacements

- The Vice President may stand in for the President, when the President is deemed absent, or if the President asks him to.

- A Deputy Senator may stand in for a Senator, when the Senator is deemed absent, or if the Senator asks him to.

- The Supreme court currently has no deputies. If, in future, such a deputy position (or similar) exists, then such a deputy may stand in for a Justice, when the Justice is deemed absent, or if the Justice asks him to.

- There is an upper limit of 1 week if the absence is not requested, 2 weeks if requested. After that time the relevant government body must hold elections to fill the position on a permanent basis.

Senate Disbandment

- As Per the Consitution, Article III, Section 7: "Should half or more of the Senate become absent, the Senate shall be disbanded." The Supreme Court must hold elections to fill the positions on a permanent basis.

"Relevant Government Body" for elections

- The Supreme court is responsible for the Presidency and Senate.
- The Senate is responisble for the Supreme Court. If the Senate is unable to deal with this, then President can deal with the Supreme Court, as a backup.

JUSTIFICATION

The Senate is of the opinion that fixed deadlines will assist to remove the confusion around when a government member is deemed absent.

This law will allow for deputies to fill the shoes of their superior, for a temporary basis, to keep the government from waiting on a particular official to make decisions.

It also means that after prolonged absence, an election should be called to replace positions that have become vacant due to absence.

Any thoughts/comments?

Alright, but what about now, or in the future if there isn't a deputy position?  Do we hold replacement elections?  Are they voted in by the senate?  Maybe we can allow one justice to be appointed by the pres or senate to resolve the immediate critical issue, and then once that has been taken care of we hold elections?

Just a small clarification: when you say a "permanent basis", I assume you mean that they'll serve for a regular election cycle, not for life as a justice would.

Normally I wouldn't like this idea, but sinse there hasn't been any competition for senate seats so far, and indeed, we've been hard pressed to fill the seats that exist, I think this idea has merit.  Even if none of our senators go missing, I think the senate needs to be reduced simply because we don't have enough participation to carry five seats.  But, if no one goes absent, who (and/or what seats) get(s) cut?   This is really a topic for another law though, so maybe this wouldn't be the best place to discuss it.

I would suggest that an election needs to be held. The SC Justices are an important check on the Senate, and would be a conflict of interest if the Senate appointed a Justice.

Yep, sorry, I wrote that just before I went to bed . This should be changed to "hold elections to fill the positions for the remainder of the regular electoral cycle"

In regards to reducing the senate... yep let's start another drafting thread for that...

Good point.  But in the interest of streamlining things if there's a roadblock, how about allowing the pres to temporarily appoint a deputy SC justice, who will then be dis-robed immediately after the crisis is resolved, and then hold regular elections?  This way we wouldn't have to wait a week or more for candidates to declare themselves, and hold a vote, all the while pondering what to do about the current problem.  Once the roadblock is removed, then we can hold regular elections while the game continues to move forward.

That's fair enough. I wouldn't have a problem with that. In the most part, the SC Justices are needed to hold the Presidential and Senate elections, that would be the biggest stalling point.

Obviously they also have a veto over any Senate rulings, but if they are MIA then we wouldn't know if they wanted to veto our laws anyway...

I would say that the position would be called an "Interim Justice" since they are not really a deputy. They can only decide on the matter(s) at hand that are holding up the game, then a new election must be held. The interim justice could not be an existing member of the Presidency or Senate, it would have to be a citizen outside of the government, or else again there could be a conflict of interest.

EDIT: Fixed messed up quotes

ADDIT: Although the president, if he was being very sneaky, could appoint someone who agrees with him anyway...

And there would have to be a reasonable time limit to vote - e.g. 48 hours.

Perhaps whenever a senate vote is held then whoever creates the thread should also PM all the senators? At least then they'd get an email through to them?

Jerm's suggestions sound good.