Mirfak
23-03-2005, 05:05
A national holiday was called today in Mirfak as the national constitution, proposed in its original form almost a year ago, was ratified by 3/4 of the representative Council and thus accepted as the national code on which the government and its powers will be based. The Constitution of Mirfak, which uses the nineteenth century Earth United States Constitution as its template, uses a three-branch government consisting of an executive Alphin, a monocameral legislature Council, and a chief juducial body called the Daiho, and outlines the powers and limitations of each as well as an embedded bill of rights in the final article. The government structure is already in place, the current government having been formed with the ratification of the document in mind, and actual changes in doing business are expected to be minor. "This is an exciting time for Mirfak," said Alphin Kevin Ailes of the signing this afternoon. "The government and people of our nation have shown incredible tolerance and character throughout the ordeals of the past seven years, and it pleases me beyond measure that we can all gather today unified again and ready to move forward as a whole." The reign of fascist dictator Fiquil Alano was ended in Mirfak six years ago by occupation forces, and the Treaty of Jin Rin, which gave Mirfak independence in return for temporary restrictions of its military and police forces, was signed by all parties three months ago.
Constitution:
We the people of Mirfak, in order to establish social justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, and secure liberty for ourselves and those who follow us, do ordain and establish this Constitution for Mirfak.
Article I.
Section 1.
All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a representative Council of Mirfak.
Section 2.
Clause 1: The Council shall be composed of five hundred Councilors chosen by direct election every fifth year by the citizens of Mirfak residing in their provincial district.
Clause 2: No person shall be a Councilor who shall not have attained the age of twenty-five years, and been ten years a citizen of Mirfak, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of the province in which chosen.
Clause 3: Five hundred Councilors shall be apportioned among the provinces according to their respective citizen populations. The actual enumeration shall be made within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. Provinces having more than one seat in the Council apportioned to them will define provincial Districts in which each Councilor shall be elected. These districts shall have citizen populations as equal as may be. Each Councilor shall have one vote in the Council.
Clause 4: When vacancies happen in the Council from any province, the executive authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such vacancies until the next election.
Clause 5: The Council shall choose their own officers, including the Speaker, who shall be granted a second vote if the Council be equally divided on an issue.
Clause 6: Councilors shall be divided as equally as may be into five classes, each of which shall be elected on a different year.
Section 3.
Clause 1: All citizens of Mirfak shall vote for their province’s Councilor, the method which shall be prescribed by law.
Clause 2: The Council shall be in session for no less than two thirds of each year, the exact dates which shall be prescribed by law.
Section 4.
Clause 1: The Council shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members, and three quarters of Council members shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller Number may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members.
Clause 2: The Council may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of three quarters, expel a member.
Clause 3: The Council shall keep an official record of its proceedings, and publish the same on a yearly basis, excepting such parts as two thirds may judge require secrecy. The votes of Councilors will be included in this record.
Clause 4: The Council shall not adjourn for more than ten days total while it is in session.
Section 5.
Clause 1: Councilors shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by Law and paid out of the Treasury of Mirfak. No law varying the compensation for the services of the Councilors shall take effect until a full election cycle shall have intervened. Councilors shall in all cases, except offenses of the first, second, or third class, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of the Council, and in going to and returning from the same. For any speech or debate in the Council session, they shall not be publicly charged.
Clause 2: No Councilor shall accept any compensation outside of that which is allotted equally to all Councilors by law.
Section 6.
Clause 1: Every bill which shall have passed the Council with less than two thirds of voting members its favor, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the Alphin of Mirfak. If the Alphin approve the Alphin shall sign it, but if not shall return it, with any objections, to the Council. If two thirds of the Council, after entering the objections into record and reconsidering, votes to approve the bill, it shall become a law. If any bill shall not be returned by the Alphin within ten days after it shall have been presented for approval, excluding days the Council is not in session, the bill shall be a law. No bill shall be passed in the Council if a majority in its favor cannot be obtained in voting.
Clause 2: Every order, resolution, or other decision the Council may pass shall be subject to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill.
Section 7.
Clause 1: The Council shall have the sole power to impose and collect any taxes deemed necessary to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of Mirfak;
Clause 2: To regulate commerce conducted within Mirfak or involving a party native to Mirfak;
Clause 3: To regulate citizenship;
Clause 4: To coin money and regulate the value of domestic and foreign currency, and fix the standard of weights and measures;
Clause 5: To determine actions that may be taken on those convicted by the judicial power;
Clause 6: To establish public organizations for the promotion of the general welfare;
Clause 7: To promote the progress of science and the arts by securing for limited times to developers the exclusive right to their respective works and discoveries;
Clause 8: To authorize offensive military action, and make any rules of warfare it deems necessary;
Clause 9: To raise, support, and call forth militaries;
Clause 10: To make rules for the government and regulation of military forces;
Clause 11: To exercise legislation over areas controlled by Mirfak or its citizens not within the territorial boundaries of Mirfak, and provide for the erection of publicly owned installations within and without Mirfak;
Clause 12: To confirm all appointments and overturn all commissions made by the Alphin;
Clause 13: To initiate impeachment of government officials; and
Clause 14: To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of Mirfak, or in any department or officer thereof.
Section 8.
Clause 1: The migration of persons into, out of, or within Mirfak shall not be prohibited by the Council.
Clause 2: The right of anyone forcibly held within Mirfak or by a party of Mirfak to a judicial review of their sentence shall not be suspended.
Clause 3: No legislation providing for judgement without trial or retroactive enforcement of laws shall be passed.
Clause 5: No preference shall be given by any legislation to any persons or places over other persons or places within Mirfak.
Clause 6: No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and an annual statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published.
Article II.
Section 1.
Clause 1: The executive power shall be vested in an Alphin of Mirfak, who shall be elected every five years by popular vote of the citizens of Mirfak at large.
Clause 2: The Council may determine the time and day on which the vote for Alphin is held, which shall be the same throughout Mirfak.
Clause 3: No person shall be Alphin who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty years, and been fifteen years a citizen of Mirfak.
Clause 4: In cases where the office of Alphin is vacated through conviction of impeachment charges, death, resignation, or inability to discharge official powers, the Speaker of the Council shall assume the executive power until a new Alphin shall be elected. Upon taking the office of Alphin, the Speaker shall immediately resign from office in the Council.
Clause 5: The Alphin shall receive an annual compensation, and no law varying the compensation for the services of the Alphin shall take effect until a full election cycle shall have intervened. The Alphin shall not accept any compensation outside of that which is allotted by law.
Clause 6: Before entering office, the Alphin shall take the following oath: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of Alphin of Mirfak, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and people of Mirfak."
Section 2.
Clause 1: The Alphin shall be Grahalel of Mirfak’s military forces.
Clause 2: The Alphin shall have power to make treaties and appoint ambassadors, public ministers, judges of the Daiho, and all other officers of Mirfak whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for; but the Council may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers as they think proper in the Alphin alone, in courts of law, or in heads of departments.
Clause 3: The Alphin shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Council by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.
Section 3.
The Alphin shall annually give to the Council information on the state of the nation, and recommend to its members such measures judged necessary and expedient. The Alphin may, on extraordinary occasions, convene the Council, but cannot adjourn it. The Alphin shall also receive ambassadors and other foreign officials, and shall commission such officers on behalf of Mirfak.
Section 4.
The Alphin, and all civil officers of Mirfak, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, offenses of the first, second, or third class.
Article III.
Section 1.
The judicial power of Mirfak shall be vested in one Daiho, which shall have nine members, and in such inferior courts as it may ordain and establish. Judges, both of the Daiho and inferior courts, shall hold their offices for life except in instances of resignation, conviction of impeachment charges, or inability to discharge official powers, and shall receive an annual compensation for their services, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.
Section 2.
Clause 1: The judicial power shall extend to all legal cases arising under this Constitution, the laws of Mirfak, and treaties to which Mirfak is party occurring within the physical territory of Mirfak or involving a citizen or representative of or to Mirfak.
Clause 2: In all cases affecting foreign representatives, and those in which a province shall be party, the Daiho shall have original jurisdiction; in all other cases the Daiho shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact. The Daiho is responsible for the faithful execution of the laws of Mirfak.
Clause 3: The trial of all crimes shall be decided by a panel of three or more judges for all but offenses of the lowest class as the Council may determine. Such trials shall be held in a court of and in the province where the said crimes shall have been committed; but when the said crimes shall not have been committed within any province, or involve parties from more than one province, or violate federal law, the trial shall be held by such federal court as the Daiho may by law direct.
Clause 6: The Daiho shall have the sole power to try all impeachments, and shall not convict without the concurrence of two thirds of its members.
Clause 7: Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office and disqualification to hold public office of Mirfak, but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment according to law.
Section 3.
Clause 1: Treason against Mirfak shall consist only of a citizen of Mirfak levying war against the nation or giving illegal aid to its declared enemies. No citizen shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act or on confession in open court.
Clause 2: The Council shall have power to declare the actions that may be taken on those convicted of treason. Treason shall not include any inactive offense on the part of the accused.
Article IV.
Section 1.
Full faith and credit shall be given in each province to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other province. The Council may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.
Section 2.
Clause 1: The citizens of all provinces shall be entitled to equal treatment and protection under the law.
Clause 2: A person fleeing from judicial authority in one court’s jurisdiction, if found in another’s, shall on demand of the judicial authority of the jurisdiction fled be removed to that jurisdiction to stand trial.
Section 3.
Clause 1: New provinces may be admitted by two thirds of the Council into the nation of Mirfak; but no new province shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other province; nor any province be formed by the junction of two or more provinces, or parts of provinces, without the consent of the legislatures of the provinces concerned as well as of the Council.
Clause 2: The Council shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to Mirfak; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of Mirfak, or of any particular province.
Section 4.
Mirfak shall guarantee to every province in this nation a three-branch republican form of government on the model of this Constitution, and shall protect each of them against invasion and domestic violence.
Article V.
The Council, whenever two thirds shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the provinces, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of this constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the provinces, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Council; provided that no province shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Council.
Article VI.
Clause 1: This Constitution, and the laws of Mirfak which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of Mirfak, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every province shall be bound thereby, any thing in the constitution or laws of any province to the contrary notwithstanding.
Clause 2: All public officers, both of Mirfak and of the provinces, shall be bound by oath to support this Constitution; but no religious, ethnic, preferential, or other such biased test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office in Mirfak.
Clause 3: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for any reason.
Clause 4: The right of the people to be secure in their persons and property, both tangible and intangible, from unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and warrants shall only be issued on probable cause that particularly describe the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.
Clause 5: No person shall be tried more than once for the same offense; nor have judgment or sentence passed without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.
Clause 6: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by impartial judges, to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation, to be confronted with the prosecution's witnesses and evidence, to have compulsory process for obtaining defense witnesses and evidence, and to have the assistance of qualified legal counsel.
Clause 7: All suits held before the courts of Mirfak and the provinces shall be subject to the same rules and regulations, and no bias shall be accepted on the part of ruling judges.
Clause 8: In all cases the actions taken on a criminal must fit the crime committed as well as possible, and all such judgments given equally. Torture, both physical and psychological, shall be in all cases forbidden.
Clause 9: The enumeration in this Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage other such rights retained by the people.
Clause 10: The powers not delegated to Mirfak or prohibited to it or its parties in this Constitution are reserved to the provinces respectively, or to the people.
Clause 11: No involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been convicted in a court of law, shall exist within Mirfak or any place subject to its jurisdiction.
Clause 12: All persons born or naturalized in Mirfak and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of Mirfak and of whatever province wherein they may reside.
Clause 13: The right to vote free of discrimination and charge shall not be denied to citizens who have attained the age of majority specified by law for their species.
Constitution:
We the people of Mirfak, in order to establish social justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, and secure liberty for ourselves and those who follow us, do ordain and establish this Constitution for Mirfak.
Article I.
Section 1.
All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a representative Council of Mirfak.
Section 2.
Clause 1: The Council shall be composed of five hundred Councilors chosen by direct election every fifth year by the citizens of Mirfak residing in their provincial district.
Clause 2: No person shall be a Councilor who shall not have attained the age of twenty-five years, and been ten years a citizen of Mirfak, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of the province in which chosen.
Clause 3: Five hundred Councilors shall be apportioned among the provinces according to their respective citizen populations. The actual enumeration shall be made within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. Provinces having more than one seat in the Council apportioned to them will define provincial Districts in which each Councilor shall be elected. These districts shall have citizen populations as equal as may be. Each Councilor shall have one vote in the Council.
Clause 4: When vacancies happen in the Council from any province, the executive authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such vacancies until the next election.
Clause 5: The Council shall choose their own officers, including the Speaker, who shall be granted a second vote if the Council be equally divided on an issue.
Clause 6: Councilors shall be divided as equally as may be into five classes, each of which shall be elected on a different year.
Section 3.
Clause 1: All citizens of Mirfak shall vote for their province’s Councilor, the method which shall be prescribed by law.
Clause 2: The Council shall be in session for no less than two thirds of each year, the exact dates which shall be prescribed by law.
Section 4.
Clause 1: The Council shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members, and three quarters of Council members shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller Number may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members.
Clause 2: The Council may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of three quarters, expel a member.
Clause 3: The Council shall keep an official record of its proceedings, and publish the same on a yearly basis, excepting such parts as two thirds may judge require secrecy. The votes of Councilors will be included in this record.
Clause 4: The Council shall not adjourn for more than ten days total while it is in session.
Section 5.
Clause 1: Councilors shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by Law and paid out of the Treasury of Mirfak. No law varying the compensation for the services of the Councilors shall take effect until a full election cycle shall have intervened. Councilors shall in all cases, except offenses of the first, second, or third class, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of the Council, and in going to and returning from the same. For any speech or debate in the Council session, they shall not be publicly charged.
Clause 2: No Councilor shall accept any compensation outside of that which is allotted equally to all Councilors by law.
Section 6.
Clause 1: Every bill which shall have passed the Council with less than two thirds of voting members its favor, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the Alphin of Mirfak. If the Alphin approve the Alphin shall sign it, but if not shall return it, with any objections, to the Council. If two thirds of the Council, after entering the objections into record and reconsidering, votes to approve the bill, it shall become a law. If any bill shall not be returned by the Alphin within ten days after it shall have been presented for approval, excluding days the Council is not in session, the bill shall be a law. No bill shall be passed in the Council if a majority in its favor cannot be obtained in voting.
Clause 2: Every order, resolution, or other decision the Council may pass shall be subject to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill.
Section 7.
Clause 1: The Council shall have the sole power to impose and collect any taxes deemed necessary to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of Mirfak;
Clause 2: To regulate commerce conducted within Mirfak or involving a party native to Mirfak;
Clause 3: To regulate citizenship;
Clause 4: To coin money and regulate the value of domestic and foreign currency, and fix the standard of weights and measures;
Clause 5: To determine actions that may be taken on those convicted by the judicial power;
Clause 6: To establish public organizations for the promotion of the general welfare;
Clause 7: To promote the progress of science and the arts by securing for limited times to developers the exclusive right to their respective works and discoveries;
Clause 8: To authorize offensive military action, and make any rules of warfare it deems necessary;
Clause 9: To raise, support, and call forth militaries;
Clause 10: To make rules for the government and regulation of military forces;
Clause 11: To exercise legislation over areas controlled by Mirfak or its citizens not within the territorial boundaries of Mirfak, and provide for the erection of publicly owned installations within and without Mirfak;
Clause 12: To confirm all appointments and overturn all commissions made by the Alphin;
Clause 13: To initiate impeachment of government officials; and
Clause 14: To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of Mirfak, or in any department or officer thereof.
Section 8.
Clause 1: The migration of persons into, out of, or within Mirfak shall not be prohibited by the Council.
Clause 2: The right of anyone forcibly held within Mirfak or by a party of Mirfak to a judicial review of their sentence shall not be suspended.
Clause 3: No legislation providing for judgement without trial or retroactive enforcement of laws shall be passed.
Clause 5: No preference shall be given by any legislation to any persons or places over other persons or places within Mirfak.
Clause 6: No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and an annual statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published.
Article II.
Section 1.
Clause 1: The executive power shall be vested in an Alphin of Mirfak, who shall be elected every five years by popular vote of the citizens of Mirfak at large.
Clause 2: The Council may determine the time and day on which the vote for Alphin is held, which shall be the same throughout Mirfak.
Clause 3: No person shall be Alphin who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty years, and been fifteen years a citizen of Mirfak.
Clause 4: In cases where the office of Alphin is vacated through conviction of impeachment charges, death, resignation, or inability to discharge official powers, the Speaker of the Council shall assume the executive power until a new Alphin shall be elected. Upon taking the office of Alphin, the Speaker shall immediately resign from office in the Council.
Clause 5: The Alphin shall receive an annual compensation, and no law varying the compensation for the services of the Alphin shall take effect until a full election cycle shall have intervened. The Alphin shall not accept any compensation outside of that which is allotted by law.
Clause 6: Before entering office, the Alphin shall take the following oath: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of Alphin of Mirfak, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and people of Mirfak."
Section 2.
Clause 1: The Alphin shall be Grahalel of Mirfak’s military forces.
Clause 2: The Alphin shall have power to make treaties and appoint ambassadors, public ministers, judges of the Daiho, and all other officers of Mirfak whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for; but the Council may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers as they think proper in the Alphin alone, in courts of law, or in heads of departments.
Clause 3: The Alphin shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Council by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.
Section 3.
The Alphin shall annually give to the Council information on the state of the nation, and recommend to its members such measures judged necessary and expedient. The Alphin may, on extraordinary occasions, convene the Council, but cannot adjourn it. The Alphin shall also receive ambassadors and other foreign officials, and shall commission such officers on behalf of Mirfak.
Section 4.
The Alphin, and all civil officers of Mirfak, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, offenses of the first, second, or third class.
Article III.
Section 1.
The judicial power of Mirfak shall be vested in one Daiho, which shall have nine members, and in such inferior courts as it may ordain and establish. Judges, both of the Daiho and inferior courts, shall hold their offices for life except in instances of resignation, conviction of impeachment charges, or inability to discharge official powers, and shall receive an annual compensation for their services, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.
Section 2.
Clause 1: The judicial power shall extend to all legal cases arising under this Constitution, the laws of Mirfak, and treaties to which Mirfak is party occurring within the physical territory of Mirfak or involving a citizen or representative of or to Mirfak.
Clause 2: In all cases affecting foreign representatives, and those in which a province shall be party, the Daiho shall have original jurisdiction; in all other cases the Daiho shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact. The Daiho is responsible for the faithful execution of the laws of Mirfak.
Clause 3: The trial of all crimes shall be decided by a panel of three or more judges for all but offenses of the lowest class as the Council may determine. Such trials shall be held in a court of and in the province where the said crimes shall have been committed; but when the said crimes shall not have been committed within any province, or involve parties from more than one province, or violate federal law, the trial shall be held by such federal court as the Daiho may by law direct.
Clause 6: The Daiho shall have the sole power to try all impeachments, and shall not convict without the concurrence of two thirds of its members.
Clause 7: Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office and disqualification to hold public office of Mirfak, but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment according to law.
Section 3.
Clause 1: Treason against Mirfak shall consist only of a citizen of Mirfak levying war against the nation or giving illegal aid to its declared enemies. No citizen shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act or on confession in open court.
Clause 2: The Council shall have power to declare the actions that may be taken on those convicted of treason. Treason shall not include any inactive offense on the part of the accused.
Article IV.
Section 1.
Full faith and credit shall be given in each province to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other province. The Council may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.
Section 2.
Clause 1: The citizens of all provinces shall be entitled to equal treatment and protection under the law.
Clause 2: A person fleeing from judicial authority in one court’s jurisdiction, if found in another’s, shall on demand of the judicial authority of the jurisdiction fled be removed to that jurisdiction to stand trial.
Section 3.
Clause 1: New provinces may be admitted by two thirds of the Council into the nation of Mirfak; but no new province shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other province; nor any province be formed by the junction of two or more provinces, or parts of provinces, without the consent of the legislatures of the provinces concerned as well as of the Council.
Clause 2: The Council shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to Mirfak; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of Mirfak, or of any particular province.
Section 4.
Mirfak shall guarantee to every province in this nation a three-branch republican form of government on the model of this Constitution, and shall protect each of them against invasion and domestic violence.
Article V.
The Council, whenever two thirds shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the provinces, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of this constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the provinces, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Council; provided that no province shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Council.
Article VI.
Clause 1: This Constitution, and the laws of Mirfak which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of Mirfak, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every province shall be bound thereby, any thing in the constitution or laws of any province to the contrary notwithstanding.
Clause 2: All public officers, both of Mirfak and of the provinces, shall be bound by oath to support this Constitution; but no religious, ethnic, preferential, or other such biased test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office in Mirfak.
Clause 3: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for any reason.
Clause 4: The right of the people to be secure in their persons and property, both tangible and intangible, from unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and warrants shall only be issued on probable cause that particularly describe the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.
Clause 5: No person shall be tried more than once for the same offense; nor have judgment or sentence passed without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.
Clause 6: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by impartial judges, to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation, to be confronted with the prosecution's witnesses and evidence, to have compulsory process for obtaining defense witnesses and evidence, and to have the assistance of qualified legal counsel.
Clause 7: All suits held before the courts of Mirfak and the provinces shall be subject to the same rules and regulations, and no bias shall be accepted on the part of ruling judges.
Clause 8: In all cases the actions taken on a criminal must fit the crime committed as well as possible, and all such judgments given equally. Torture, both physical and psychological, shall be in all cases forbidden.
Clause 9: The enumeration in this Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage other such rights retained by the people.
Clause 10: The powers not delegated to Mirfak or prohibited to it or its parties in this Constitution are reserved to the provinces respectively, or to the people.
Clause 11: No involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been convicted in a court of law, shall exist within Mirfak or any place subject to its jurisdiction.
Clause 12: All persons born or naturalized in Mirfak and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of Mirfak and of whatever province wherein they may reside.
Clause 13: The right to vote free of discrimination and charge shall not be denied to citizens who have attained the age of majority specified by law for their species.