The Constitution of the United States

Section 1 — The Two Houses; Anti-Corruption

All federal laws are made by Congress, divided into the House of Representatives and the Senate. No Act of Congress shall confer a specific financial benefit, immunity, privilege, or exemption on any identified or identifiable private party — whether named or described in terms applicable to fewer than ten persons or entities — that is not available on equal terms to all similarly situated persons. The constitutional invalidity of a law under this section is determined by its text and practical effect, not by the stated intent of its proponents.

Section 2 — Who Votes; Voter ID; LPR Voting

Every citizen 18 or older may vote in federal elections. Every qualifying lawful permanent resident — meaning a person who has held that status for at least seven consecutive years with an active, pending naturalization application in good standing — may also vote in federal elections. LPR voting is subject to reauthorization by Congress every ten years. A government-issued photo ID is required to vote. The federal government shall make that ID available to every eligible voter at no cost. No state or jurisdiction may require a literacy test, education test, or comprehension test of any kind as a condition of voter registration or voting. A jurisdiction in which a single language minority group constitutes more than 5% of voting-age citizens, or more than 10,000 voting-age citizens, must provide voter registration materials, ballots, and voting assistance in that language in addition to English.

All persons counted for apportionment are citizens and qualifying lawful permanent residents.

Section 4 — Direct Election of Senators

Senators are elected directly by the eligible voters of their state by popular vote. No state legislature, governor, or any other body may appoint a person to the Senate except to fill a vacancy pending a special election, which must be held within 120 days of the vacancy arising (or, if the vacancy occurs within 6 months of a regularly scheduled general election, the seat is filled at that general election). A person appointed to fill a vacancy serves only until the special election is held and its winner is certified; they may not continue in office beyond that certification under any circumstance.

Section 4-A — Term Limits

No person may serve more than eight years in the House of Representatives — four two-year terms — or more than twelve years in the Senate — two six-year terms — consecutive or not. Partial terms exceeding one year count toward the limit. No person who has reached their limit may return to that chamber.

Section 4-B — Congressional Terms Begin January 3

The terms of Senators and Representatives begin on January 3 at noon following the November election in which they were chosen. The sitting Congress remains in lawful session until that moment. No legislation passed by a Congress whose successors have been elected and certified takes effect before those successors are sworn in, except in a declared national emergency requiring immediate action. This provision ensures that a Congress repudiated by the voters may not use the lame-duck period to bind the incoming Congress or the country to major policy changes it could not have passed if the election had gone differently.

Section 5 — Pay; Stock Trading Ban; Election Day Holiday; Compensation Change Timing

Congressional pay is set at the national median household income, adjusted annually for the cost of living in Washington, D.C. If Congress fails to pass a balanced budget for three consecutive fiscal years, Member pay is automatically suspended until a budget is enacted. Trust funds and dedicated revenues ring-fenced by law are excluded from this calculation.

No change to the compensation formula for any elected federal official — including Members of Congress, the President, and the Vice President — takes effect during the term of any official who voted for or signed the change. Compensation changes affecting Congress take effect only after the next general congressional election following enactment. Compensation changes affecting the President or Vice President take effect only at the start of the next presidential term following enactment. An automatic cost-of-living adjustment based on a previously established index does not constitute a "change" for purposes of this provision and takes effect on schedule without delay.

No Member of Congress, their spouse, their dependent children, or any entity in which they hold a 5% or greater interest may trade in stocks, commodities, or securities during the Member's time in office. Violations result in removal from office and a permanent bar from federal office.

All federal election days are paid civic holidays. Every employer must provide workers with paid time to vote.

Section 6 — Passing Laws; Debt

All revenue and spending bills originate in the House. The President may sign or veto; two-thirds of both chambers overrides a veto. Every law must address a single subject stated in its title.

The debt ceiling is abolished. See Article Three, Section 9, which governs the budget process, automatic continuing resolution, and the prohibition on impoundment.

Constitutional Statutes. This Constitution establishes a category of implementing legislation called the Constitutional Statute. A Constitutional Statute is the body of operational law by which a right, structure, or guarantee of this Constitution is made real and enforceable. The authority for the Constitutional Statute, and for the protection this Section gives it, is conferred by this Constitution itself, and not by any Act of Congress; a Constitutional Statute does not protect itself, but is protected by this provision of the Constitution.

The supermajority protection and its source of authority. A Constitutional Statute may be enacted by ordinary majority, but once enacted it may be repealed, amended, suspended, or defunded only by a vote of sixty percent of both chambers, except where this Constitution requires a higher threshold for a particular matter. This requirement binds every Congress because it is imposed by the Constitution, in the same manner and by the same authority as the other supermajority requirements this Constitution imposes upon Congress — including the two-thirds required to override a veto, to expel a member, or to propose an amendment. The principle that an ordinary legislature may not bind its successors has no application here, for the binding authority is not that of a prior Congress but that of the Constitution, which creates the legislature and defines the terms on which it acts. As the Constitution may require a supermajority to override a veto, so it may require a supermajority to dismantle the operational law that makes a constitutional guarantee real.

The reason for this structure, and its limits. This structure is deliberate and, in its application to the detailed operational law of governance, departs from older practice in which constitutions entrenched only broad structure. It does so because experience has shown that a right declared in principle but left to ordinary legislation is a right that a transient majority may hollow out without ever repealing it — by defunding its enforcement, repealing its mechanisms, or starving the body that administers it. To declare a right and leave its machinery unprotected is to promise in form what may be denied in substance. The supermajority protection extends only so far as that purpose requires: it protects the mechanisms that make rights real, and it may never be invoked to entrench a measure that diminishes a right or protection this Constitution guarantees. A Constitutional Statute that purports to reduce a constitutional guarantee is void to that extent, and no supermajority protects it; the protection runs in one direction only, toward the preservation of rights, never toward their diminishment.

Administrative improvement of mechanisms. A Constitutional Statute protects the mechanisms that make a right real, but it does not freeze the means by which those mechanisms are carried out. An agency charged with administering a Constitutional Statute may, by regulation and within the bounds the statute sets, improve the methods, procedures, and practices by which it fulfills its duties — adopting better technology, more efficient process, and more effective practice as knowledge advances — without a supermajority vote, so that the administration of a right is not frozen at the understanding of the moment it was written.

The limit on that authority. This authority to improve methods is an authority to fulfill the statute's purpose more effectively, never to diminish it. An agency may not, under the guise of improving a method, weaken a protection, relax a standard, narrow a right, reduce an enforcement duty, or accomplish by procedure what only a sixty-percent supermajority could accomplish by amendment. Where a change to a method would reduce the protection a person receives, it is not an improvement within the meaning of this provision and may be made only by the supermajority the amendment of a Constitutional Statute requires. Whether a given change improves or diminishes a protection is a question subject to review in the courts, and the burden is on the agency to show that the change preserves or strengthens the protection it administers.

The distinction stated plainly. An agency may change how it does its work; it may never change whether the work is done or how well the person is protected. The method belongs to the agency, to be improved as understanding grows; the protection belongs to the people, and is altered only as this Constitution and its Statutes allow.

Section 7 — Congressional Powers; English; Border; Congressional Review; Federal Enclave

Congress has the power to lay and collect taxes; borrow money; regulate interstate and foreign commerce; establish naturalization rules; coin money; declare war; raise and support the armed forces; and make all laws necessary and proper to carry out these powers. English is the official language of the United States for all federal official purposes. Congress has full authority to regulate immigration, secure the borders, and set asylum standards.

Intellectual property. Congress has the power to promote the progress of science, knowledge, and the useful arts by securing to authors, inventors, and creators, for limited times, the exclusive rights to their writings, discoveries, and creative works. This power is granted to enrich the public store of knowledge and culture; the temporary reward to the creator is the means by which that public purpose is achieved, and not an end in itself. Every exclusive right secured under this power must expire after a fixed and limited period, after which the work or invention enters the public domain and belongs to all; no exclusive right may be extended retroactively to delay a work's entry into the public domain, no term may be set so long as to defeat the public's eventual ownership, and a work that has entered the public domain may never be removed from it. The power may not be used to grant or enforce a monopoly by one who did not create and does not practice the work where the purpose is to extract payment from those who do, to wall off a field of knowledge through accumulated trivial claims, or to extend a monopoly by insubstantial modification of an existing work or invention. This power is exercised consistent with the public's right to use protected works for purposes of criticism, comment, news, teaching, scholarship, research, and other fair uses; with the rights secured elsewhere in this Constitution, including free expression and access to medicine; and with the principle that facts, ideas, and the basic building blocks of knowledge may not be owned. And where an exclusive right attaches to a seed, plant, or other living thing that reproduces itself, it may never be stretched to forbid the farmer who grew it from saving and replanting seed of their own harvest on their own land, to punish the farmer for the trait that arrives by nature or by accident, or to trap the farmer in dependence on a single supplier by denying fair dealing or a lawful alternative source. The right to grow food from saved seed is older than any patent, and no patent may extinguish it.

Bankruptcy and the fresh start. Congress has the power to establish uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcy throughout the United States. This power exists to secure the fresh start — the principle that honest misfortune and failure must not become a permanent sentence, and that a person or enterprise overwhelmed by debt may be relieved of it and restored to full participation in economic life. The power is exercised for the relief of the debtor and the orderly and fair treatment of creditors alike, and never as an instrument of punishment. No category of debt owed by a natural person may be excluded from discharge in a manner that defeats the fresh start, and the debts that most often arise from the pursuit of an education, of health, or of basic subsistence may not be singled out as uniquely unforgivable; Congress may set fair and even-handed conditions on discharge, but may not erect conditions whose purpose or effect is to deny honest debtors relief. A person in bankruptcy retains the means of basic subsistence, shelter, and the tools of their livelihood, may not be stripped of the essentials of a dignified life or subjected to humiliation as a condition of relief, and imprisonment for debt is prohibited. The bankruptcy of an enterprise may not be used as a device to discharge the wages, earned pensions, or healthcare obligations owed to its workers and retirees while preserving the wealth of its owners, executives, or investors; in the reorganization or liquidation of an enterprise, the earned compensation and pension obligations owed to workers hold priority over the claims of owners and executives and over discretionary payments to insiders, and a court shall set aside any transfer or bonus designed to extract value for insiders in anticipation of or during bankruptcy at the expense of workers, creditors, or the public.

The postal power and universal communication. Congress has the power to establish and maintain a postal system and the infrastructure of public communication. This power exists to bind the nation together and to guarantee that every person, in every place, can send and receive communication on equal terms — and it is exercised as a public service, not for private profit. The postal system shall serve every address in the United States, however remote or unprofitable, at uniform and affordable rates; it may not be dismantled, starved of the means to function, or surrendered to private control in a manner that abandons universal service. The privacy of the mails is protected: correspondence may not be opened or surveilled except upon a warrant supported by probable cause. As the means of public communication extend beyond physical mail, the principle of universal, affordable, private access governs them as well.

Weights, measures, and the integrity of standards. Congress has the power to fix and maintain uniform standards of weights, measures, time, and quality throughout the United States, and to ensure the integrity of measurement in all dealings. This power exists so that a thing is what it claims to be: that a unit of weight, volume, energy, distance, or value means the same to every person, and that no one may profit by falsifying, manipulating, or concealing the true measure of what they sell, charge, or provide. Standards shall be set by the best available science, openly and free from capture by those they govern, and maintained as a public trust. The deliberate use of false, deceptive, or manipulated measurement to disadvantage another is prohibited.

Congress has exclusive legislative authority over a federal enclave consisting of the Capitol, the White House, the Supreme Court, the National Mall, and the principal buildings of federal agencies, as the boundaries are designated by statute. This enclave is the permanent seat of government of the United States and is not part of any state. No person resides within the enclave as a matter of permanent domicile; persons who work within it retain voting residency in the state in which they actually live.

Congress may overturn any final federal agency regulation by majority vote of both chambers, with written objections identifying the specific regulatory provisions and statutory basis for each objection. After a regulation is overturned, the agency may issue a revised regulation after 180 days addressing the stated objections.

Section 9 — Budget Calendar, Automatic Continuing Resolution, and Shutdown Prevention

Congress shall adopt a concurrent budget resolution by May 15 of each fiscal year, setting top-line spending and revenue targets for each appropriations subcommittee. Congress shall complete action on all required appropriations bills and transmit them to the President by September 30, the last day of the fiscal year. These are constitutional deadlines, not aspirational targets. A Congress that fails to meet them has failed in its most fundamental legislative obligation.

If Congress fails to enact all required appropriations before October 1 — the start of the new fiscal year — all prior-year appropriations continue in effect automatically at their most recently enacted levels, adjusted at the rate of change in the Employment Cost Index for the prior fiscal year, with a floor of 0% (no nominal reduction below prior-year levels) and a ceiling of 3% (preventing runaway automatic growth in high-inflation periods). This automatic continuing resolution is self-executing: it requires no congressional vote, no presidential signature, and no implementing action by any agency. It takes effect by operation of this Constitution at 12:01 AM on October 1 of any year in which appropriations are incomplete, and continues in effect until superseded by duly enacted appropriations legislation.

No federal agency, department, program, or office may be closed, furloughed, have its operations curtailed, or have its employees asked to work without pay because Congress failed to pass a budget or appropriations bill on time. The federal government does not shut down. Essential services continue. Federal employees continue to work and are paid on their normal schedule. The automatic continuing resolution funds all of them.

During any period in which the automatic continuing resolution is in effect — meaning any day on or after October 1 of a fiscal year in which Congress has not completed all appropriations — no Member of Congress receives any salary, allowance, expense reimbursement, or any other compensation from the federal government. The pay suspension begins automatically on October 1 and ends on the date the final appropriations bill is enacted. Suspended pay is not recovered, deferred, or retroactively compensated once the appropriations process is complete. The purpose of this provision is to ensure that the people whose failure to act causes the automatic continuing resolution bear a personal cost proportional to the inconvenience they have imposed on the country.

The debt ceiling is abolished. The United States shall pay all obligations lawfully incurred by act of Congress. When Congress appropriates funds, it simultaneously authorizes the Treasury to borrow whatever is necessary to honor those appropriations. A vote to appropriate is a vote to pay. There is no separate debt ceiling vote, and Congress may not create one by statute.

When Congress appropriates funds for a specific program, agency, or purpose, the President must obligate and spend those funds as directed within the time period specified by Congress or, if no period is specified, within the fiscal year in which they were appropriated. The President may not impound, withhold, freeze, redirect, reprogram, or decline to spend appropriated funds because of policy disagreement with the program Congress funded, because the President believes the funds are unnecessary or wasteful, or for any other reason not specifically authorized by a duly enacted statute. The power of the purse belongs to Congress. The President executes spending decisions Congress makes; the President does not override spending decisions Congress has already made.

If the President believes an appropriation should be rescinded or deferred, the President must transmit a specific, written rescission or deferral proposal to Congress identifying the precise funds at issue and the specific justification. Congress may approve the proposal by majority vote of both chambers within 45 days; if Congress does not act within 45 days, the funds must be released and obligated immediately. An unapproved impoundment of funds is a constitutional violation subject to judicial order requiring the immediate release and obligation of the withheld funds. Congress, any affected federal agency, and any person or entity that would have directly benefited from the appropriated funds may bring a direct action in federal court to compel expenditure without showing broader harm beyond the impoundment itself.

No executive order, presidential memorandum, national security directive, emergency declaration, or any other unilateral presidential action may be used to impound, freeze, redirect, or withhold funds that Congress has appropriated. This prohibition is not subject to exception by executive action of any kind. An executive order purporting to withhold appropriated funds is void from the moment of issuance and imposes no legal obligation on any federal official to comply with it. A federal official who withholds appropriated funds pursuant to an unconstitutional executive order is personally liable for the resulting harm and may not assert the order as a defense.

Section 1 — Electing the President

The President serves four-year terms and may serve no more than two terms. The President is elected by national popular vote using ranked-choice voting. Every eligible voter's ballot counts equally regardless of the state in which they live. The candidate who wins a majority in the ranked-choice tabulation becomes President. The Electoral College is abolished. The President must be a natural-born citizen, at least 35 years old, and have lived in the United States for at least 14 years. The President may accept no financial benefit from any government beyond their established salary.

The President's term begins on January 20 at noon following the November election in which they were chosen, and ends at the same moment four years later. No outgoing President retains any executive authority after that moment — no power to issue orders, grant pardons, or act in any official capacity. The incoming President assumes full constitutional authority at noon on January 20 regardless of whether an inauguration ceremony has taken place. The ceremony is a tradition; the transfer of power is a constitutional fact that occurs at the stroke of noon whether witnessed or not.

Section 2 — Presidential Powers; Pardon Limits

The President is Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. The President may make treaties with Senate approval by two-thirds vote and appoint ambassadors, Supreme Court Justices, and other officers with Senate confirmation.

The President may pardon persons convicted of federal crimes — with the following absolute exceptions: the President may not pardon themselves; not their spouse, domestic partner, parents, children, siblings, or any person related by blood or marriage within the second degree of consanguinity; and not any person whose criminal offense arose out of conduct forming the basis of any actual or potential criminal investigation involving the President personally. A pardon issued in violation of these restrictions constitutes an impeachable high crime and a personal federal offense for which the President may be prosecuted upon leaving office.

Section 3 — Executive Orders

Executive orders expire four years after issuance and may be reissued once. After two presidential terms, any executive order must be codified by Congress or it expires permanently. Executive orders may not appropriate funds or strip any right guaranteed by this Constitution.

Section 4 — Emergencies

Presidential emergency declarations last 180 days. Congressional renewal is required for extensions, with a maximum of two renewals. Emergency powers may not override enacted law, appropriate unapproved funds, or strip any constitutional right — except as specifically provided in Section 9 of this Article for active military operations in a theater of combat when Congress is unable to convene. This Section's 180-day duration applies to emergency declarations generally; an emergency entry restriction on non-citizens is instead governed by the narrower 90-day limit established under Article Twenty-Three, Section 3.

Section 7 — Vice Presidential Vacancy; Presidential Incapacity

When the office of Vice President is vacant, the President nominates a replacement confirmed by majority vote of both chambers of Congress.

When the President determines they are temporarily unable to discharge their duties, they may transmit a written declaration to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House — the Vice President then assumes power as Acting President until the President transmits a written declaration of recovery. If the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet determine the President is unable to discharge their duties, they shall transmit a written declaration to the same officers; the Vice President assumes power as Acting President. If the President contests the determination, Congress assembles within 48 hours and resolves the matter by two-thirds vote of both chambers within 21 days. Acting President status is not removal from office and does not count toward the Vice President's term limit.

Section 8 — War Powers

The President may use military force without prior congressional authorization only to: repel a sudden attack on the United States, its territories, or its armed forces; protect and evacuate American citizens abroad in an immediate emergency; or respond to an imminent threat requiring action of no more than 72 hours. In all other circumstances, the President must obtain a congressional Authorization for the Use of Military Force. Every AUMF must identify the specific enemy or theater, set a maximum duration not exceeding two years, and define the authorized scope with sufficient particularity to be judicially enforceable. Blanket authorizations are not valid AUMFs. Every AUMF expires automatically at the end of its stated duration. If the President deploys forces outside an existing AUMF, Congress must be notified within 48 hours and must vote on authorization within 30 days. If no AUMF passes within 30 days, the deployment must end within 60 days of notification.

Section 11 — The Right to Access Government Records

Implemented by: CS-18 — Federal Transparency Act

Every person has the right to request and receive records created or held by any federal agency, department, office, or instrumentality, including the Executive Office of the President. The government's business is the people's business. Government operates in public by default; secrecy is the exception that must be justified, not the rule that must be overcome.

No record may be withheld except on the narrowest grounds necessary to protect: active law enforcement investigations where disclosure would compromise the investigation or endanger a specific individual; national security sources (specifically: the identities of human intelligence sources and signals collection targets), technical collection methods whose disclosure would compromise specific collection capabilities, and specific operational plans for ongoing intelligence activities whose disclosure would cause identifiable harm. 'Sources and methods' does not include general program descriptions, legal interpretations of intelligence authorities, aggregate collection statistics, or information about activities already acknowledged in official government statements; the personal privacy of private individuals who are not public figures acting in their public capacity; and trade secrets and confidential commercial information of private parties submitted to the government under compulsion. The existence of a classification label does not itself constitute grounds for withholding — classification is a government act, and the government may not use its own act of classifying a document as the sole basis for denying access to it.

The burden of justifying any withholding falls entirely on the government. The person requesting a record bears no burden to explain why they want it or to demonstrate need. Congress shall implement this right by statute, establishing: mandatory response timelines of not more than 20 business days for routine requests; an expedited track for requests involving urgent public interest; an independent administrative appeal within the agency; and judicial review in federal district court with the court conducting de novo review of any contested withholding. The implementing statute shall be known as the Federal Transparency Act and is designated as a Constitutional Statute subject to the supermajority amendment requirement.

[Implemented by CS-18 — Federal Transparency Act]

Every meeting at which a quorum of the members of any multi-member federal agency deliberates toward or votes on any official action is a public meeting. Notice of the time, place, and subject matter of every such meeting must be published at least seven days in advance. No final vote or decision of a multi-member agency may be taken in a closed session. Closed preliminary deliberations are permitted only to discuss active litigation strategy, national security matters, personnel actions affecting specific named individuals, and trade secrets provided under compulsion — and only when the agency states publicly, in advance, the specific ground for closure and the specific subject matter being closed, without revealing the substance being protected. Any action taken in a meeting that violates this provision is voidable by any court with jurisdiction over the agency, upon petition by any affected person within 60 days of the action.

Every person has the right to access, review, and request correction of any record that any federal agency maintains about them by name, identifier, or any other means by which they are individually identifiable. An agency may not deny a person access to their own file. An agency may not share a person's records with another agency, contractor, or government without the person's written consent or a specific legal authority that itself complies with this Constitution — a general interagency data-sharing agreement does not constitute specific legal authority for this purpose. Records maintained about a person must be accurate, relevant to the agency's lawful purpose, and no more extensive than that purpose requires. The agency bears the burden of demonstrating that any record it maintains about an individual meets these requirements. Inaccurate or unlawfully maintained records must be corrected or deleted upon the person's request within 30 days. An agency that willfully maintains inaccurate records about a person, or that shares records in violation of this provision, is liable to that person for actual damages and a statutory penalty. No statute of limitations shorter than three years applies to claims under this provision.

All records created or received by the President, the Vice President, or any employee of the Executive Office of the President in the course of their official duties are the property of the United States, not of the individual who created or received them. No President, Vice President, or executive employee may destroy, remove, conceal, or transfer custody of official records except as specifically authorized by the Archivist of the United States pursuant to established retention schedules. Upon leaving office, all official records must be transferred to the National Archives within 60 days. A former President retains no possessory right in official records after leaving office — executive privilege claims over specific records may be asserted through judicial process, but possession of the records remains with the National Archives pending that process. Deliberate destruction or removal of official records is a federal felony regardless of the classification level of the records and regardless of whether the individual has left office. The use of personal communications platforms, encrypted messaging applications set to auto-delete, or any other means designed to evade the records requirement for official government business constitutes destruction of records. This provision applies equally during and after the term of office; the obligation to preserve continues and the prohibition on destruction is permanent.

Every federal agency has an affirmative constitutional obligation to create, maintain, and preserve accurate records of its decisions, actions, and communications. Governing without a written record — or systematically avoiding written records to evade accountability — is a constitutional violation of the same character as destroying records after the fact. The Archivist of the United States has independent authority, not subject to direction by the President or any agency head, to compel any federal agency to comply with records preservation requirements and to seek judicial enforcement of that compliance without prior approval from the Department of Justice. An agency official who directs or permits systematic non-documentation of official decisions as a means of evading accountability is personally liable and subject to removal from office.

Section 12 — Disaster Relief: Proportionality and Equal Treatment

When the President declares a major disaster or emergency, the federal response must be proportional to the documented need as measured by objective criteria — lives at risk, structures damaged or destroyed, economic losses, infrastructure failures, and public health consequences — applied on a per-capita and per-damage-assessment basis. The scale, speed, and quality of federal disaster assistance may not vary based on the political affiliation of the affected jurisdiction's governor, mayor, or congressional delegation; the jurisdiction's voting patterns in any prior election; the race, ethnicity, or national origin of the affected population; or whether the affected area is a state or a territory.

Territories receive disaster assistance on the same terms and timelines as states. The fact that a territory's residents do not vote in presidential elections, or that a district's residents lack full congressional representation, is not a basis for differential treatment in disaster response. The federal government's obligation to protect all persons within its jurisdiction does not diminish at the borders of a state.

The President may not condition a disaster declaration, the speed of relief delivery, or the scale of approved assistance on a governor's or local official's public statements about the President, the administration, or federal policy. A disaster declaration is a factual determination about conditions on the ground — it is not a political reward. An administration official who recommends against or delays a disaster declaration for documented political reasons is subject to removal from office and referral to the Inspector General.

Any state, territory, district, or local government that has received a presidential disaster declaration and believes it has received federal assistance that is materially inequitable — meaning less than 75% of the per-capita assistance provided to similarly situated jurisdictions with comparable documented damage assessments — may file a challenge in the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which must issue its determination within 90 days. If the court finds a violation, it may order the responsible federal agency to provide equitable supplemental assistance on a schedule the court sets.

Section 13 — Integrity of Diplomatic Appointment

The conduct of the nation’s foreign affairs may not be sold. A person nominated to serve as an ambassador, chief of mission, or in any senior diplomatic post must possess a demonstrated qualification for it — relevant experience, regional or subject-matter expertise, or command of a relevant language — and no such post may be awarded, promised, traded, or arranged in exchange for a political contribution, fundraising, or party service. An appointment made in violation of this Section is void. The Senate may confirm a nominee who does not meet this qualification floor only by a recorded supermajority vote that states, on the public record, the particular reasons the nominee is nevertheless fit to serve. The foreign policy of the United States is a public trust held for the security of the people, not a reward for those who finance its officeholders.

[The broader protections against foreign-government influence — the foreign-money prohibition, mandatory disclosure of foreign-government influence, and the think-tank and advocacy disclosure rules — appear elsewhere in this Constitution and in CS-35, which also carries the appointment-integrity standard of this Section.]

Section 1 — Supreme Court Terms and Appointments

The Supreme Court of the United States consists of nine Justices. This number may be changed only by a constitutional amendment under the ratification and amendment process established in Article One, Section 2 of this Constitution. Each Justice serves an 18-year active term, after which they may serve in a senior capacity on lower federal courts. One vacancy arises on the Supreme Court in each odd-numbered year. No President may make more than two Supreme Court appointments per four-year term; if a third vacancy arises, it waits for the next President to fill. Senate confirmation requires 60 votes. If the Senate has not voted within 180 days of a nomination, the Senate must bring the nomination to a floor vote.

The 18-year active term established by this provision specifically and exclusively modifies the "good behavior" tenure principle for Supreme Court Justices. Federal judges below the Supreme Court retain lifetime "good behavior" tenure under Article III as it has historically been understood. Upon completing 18 years of active Supreme Court service, a Justice retains full Article III judicial status — including salary, protections from removal except by impeachment, and immunity from coercive transfer — and serves as a Senior Judge available for assignment to federal circuit courts. The modification of "good behavior" tenure is limited to active Supreme Court service; it does not affect a Justice's Article III status after that active period.

Section 2 — Anti-Nepotism

No person related within the second degree of consanguinity to any appointing official may be appointed by that official to any paid or unpaid federal position, including White House advisory roles. Violations render the appointment void and constitute an impeachable high crime.

Section 3 — Judicial Ethics Commission

All federal judges, including Supreme Court Justices, are subject to a binding ethics code covering gifts, investments, travel, and conflicts of interest. An independent, bipartisan Judicial Ethics Commission — with nine members selected to ensure no partisan majority — investigates violations and refers findings for enforcement. Commissioners serve staggered terms and are removable only for cause by a two-thirds vote of the full Commission. Cause means willful misconduct, a felony offense, a material ethics code violation, or permanent incapacity. Policy disagreement is not cause.

Section 4 — Court Jurisdiction; Injunctions; Recusal; State Sovereign Immunity

Federal courts handle cases involving this Constitution, federal law, treaties, disputes between states, and cases involving the federal government. Nationwide injunctions may only be issued by circuit courts of appeals or the Supreme Court — not by individual district court judges. Federal judges must recuse from cases in which they or an immediate family member holds a direct financial interest in the outcome.

States retain sovereign immunity from unconsented private suits in federal court. This immunity is subject to four exceptions only: (a) the United States may sue any state; (b) one state may sue another; (c) Congress may abrogate state sovereign immunity by clear statutory language when enforcing constitutional rights under this Constitution's enforcement provisions; and (d) any person may sue a state officer in their official capacity for prospective injunctive or declaratory relief to prevent the continuing or future enforcement of any state law or practice that violates this Constitution or federal law — consistent with Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123 (1908). This exception does not permit suits for monetary damages, retroactive relief, or judgments operating against the state treasury.

Section 3 — New States

New states require approval by two-thirds of both chambers and a majority referendum of the proposed state's residents. No state may be carved from an existing state without that state's consent.

Section 4 — Republican Guarantee

The federal government guarantees every state a republican form of government. Citizens may sue in federal court to enforce this guarantee. A redistricting map or electoral rule that produces a consistent deviation of more than 15 percentage points between statewide popular vote share and legislative seat share for any party across three consecutive elections is presumptively in violation of this guarantee, subject to escalating federal remedies established by Constitutional Statute.

Section 5 — Anti-Commandeering; Conditional Grants for New Constitutional Rights

The federal government may not compel states, their officers, or their legislatures to enforce federal law, implement federal programs, or use state resources for federal purposes. The federal government may offer financial incentives for state cooperation — provided those incentives are not so coercive as to leave states no real choice. The distinction between genuine incentive and coercive mandate is determined by federal courts. This section applies equally regardless of subject matter or which party controls the federal government.

The affirmative rights established in Article Two — including the rights to food, housing, healthcare, internet access, and education — are implemented primarily through the federal government's conditional grants power, not through direct commandeering of state administrative systems. States that elect to participate in federal implementation programs administer the right within federal standards and receive federal funding to do so. States that decline may establish independent programs that meet the federal constitutional floor. In any jurisdiction where no functioning state or local program meets the floor, the federal government directly implements and administers the right. The constitutional floor is non-negotiable; only the administrative vehicle is a matter of state choice.

Section 8 — Territories: Rights, Representation, and Self-Determination

Every person born or naturalized in any territory of the United States is a citizen of the United States with the full constitutional rights of any other citizen. No resident of any territory may be denied any right guaranteed in this Constitution on account of their territory's status as a non-state jurisdiction. The doctrine that the Constitution does not fully follow the flag — that residents of territories are entitled to fewer constitutional protections than residents of states — is rejected. Citizens are citizens regardless of which part of the United States they inhabit.

Territories are represented in the House of Representatives proportionally by population, with voting Members equal to the representation they would receive as states. Each territory has one delegate in the Senate with full committee membership, full floor speaking privileges, and the right to vote in committee on any matter — the Senate delegate does not have a floor vote on final passage of legislation, reflecting the territory's non-state status, but has all other senatorial prerogatives. Residents of all territories vote in presidential elections. Federal taxes paid by territorial residents fund the same federal programs territorial residents receive on the same terms as state residents.

Any territory may initiate a process of self-determination by referendum. A self-determination referendum may offer the following options: continued territorial status, statehood, or independence with a negotiated transition compact. The referendum is valid if at least 50% of eligible voters participate. The winning option requires a simple majority. Congress must consider and vote on the referendum result within two years of its certification. If Congress rejects a statehood petition, it must state specific reasons in writing and those reasons are reviewable in federal court for constitutional consistency. A territory that petitions for statehood and is rejected retains the right to petition again after five years; repeated rejection without constitutionally adequate justification creates a presumption of unconstitutional denial of equal citizenship that federal courts may remedy.

If a territory votes for independence, the United States must negotiate a transition compact within three years. The compact must address: the rights of residents who wish to retain US citizenship; trade and economic arrangements that protect the territory's economy during transition; security arrangements consistent with both parties' interests; and assumption of federal obligations incurred on behalf of the territory. No transition compact may diminish the individual constitutional rights of persons who retain US citizenship after independence. American Samoa's current unique status regarding citizenship and self-governance is preserved until American Samoa itself determines otherwise by referendum.

Section 1 — Citizenship

Persons born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens from birth if at least one parent is domiciled in the United States — actually resident here and intending to remain — regardless of that parent's immigration status. A child born to a parent who is present only temporarily, and not domiciled in the United States, is not automatically a citizen; but no such child may be rendered stateless, and Congress must provide a mandatory path to legal status and citizenship for any such child. Domicile is determined by objective circumstances as established by Constitutional Statute, not by the parent's statement of intent alone.

Section 2 — The Progressive Tax Code

The federal income tax shall be progressive — persons with higher incomes pay higher rates. No flat tax or regressive tax structure is constitutional. The income tax is progressive with at least five brackets. The top marginal rate on income above the 95th national income percentile must be at least 1.5 times the rate on income at the median. Congress sets specific rates within this structural requirement by majority vote; changes to the structural progressivity requirement itself require a 60% supermajority of both chambers. Capital gains and investment income are taxed as ordinary income — no preferential rate for money made from money. Inheritance above $5 million is taxed as income to the recipient — the same rate as earned income at their level — with an exemption for family farm and family business operating continuity as established by Constitutional Statute. Corporate income is taxed progressively between 21% and 35%. Congress may authorize no more than four categories of federal income tax deductions; any additional deduction requires a 60% supermajority of both chambers.

Section 3 — Immigration Due Process

Every person within the jurisdiction of the United States, regardless of citizenship or immigration status, is entitled to the constitutional protections guaranteed by this document. The right to due process, the right against unreasonable searches and seizures, the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, and the right to equal protection apply to all persons, not only to citizens. The right to be free from arbitrary detention — including administrative immigration detention — belongs to every person on United States soil.

No person may be removed from the United States without: notice of the basis for removal; a meaningful opportunity to be heard before a neutral adjudicator; the right to legal representation (at the person's own expense or through appointed counsel if the person cannot afford representation in removal proceedings); the right to present evidence and challenge the government's case; and the right to appeal a removal order to an Article III federal court. Removal proceedings conducted without these protections are void.

Any person detained pursuant to immigration authority must be brought before a neutral adjudicator within 48 hours of detention — consistent with Right 33 — and the government must demonstrate at that hearing that continued detention is necessary and lawful. Indefinite immigration detention without periodic judicial review is prohibited. The government must either remove a detainee within a reasonable time or release them. A person who has resided in the United States for more than ten years, established family connections, contributed to their community, and has no serious criminal history has a substantive constitutional right to heightened protection against removal. A removal order may be entered against such a person only upon a clear and convincing showing that a compelling governmental interest — such as a serious criminal history or documented threat to national security — outweighs the person's established ties. The government bears the burden of demonstrating this compelling interest; the burden does not shift to the long-term resident to justify their presence. Congress shall establish the immigration admission system, pathways to lawful status, and grounds for removal — but it may not eliminate the procedural protections of this provision. The manner of immigration regulation is congressional; the minimum procedural rights of those subject to that regulation are constitutional.

Section 4 — Criminal Records and Second Chances

A person who has served their sentence has paid their debt to society. The permanent shadow of a criminal record — permanent exclusion from employment, housing, education, professional licensing, public benefits, and civic participation long after a sentence is completed — is a second punishment that is often longer and more damaging than the first. This Constitution rejects the principle that a criminal conviction is a permanent mark that defines a person for the rest of their life.

Every person who has completed all terms of their sentence — including probation and parole — is entitled to have their conviction records sealed from public access after a period of law-abiding conduct of no less than five years for misdemeanors and no less than seven years for non-violent felonies, upon petition and judicial finding that the person poses no ongoing public safety risk. Sealed records may be accessed only by law enforcement for legitimate criminal investigation purposes and may not be disclosed to employers, landlords, educational institutions, or licensing bodies. Arrests that did not result in conviction must be sealed automatically.

No employer may categorically refuse to consider applicants with criminal records without assessing whether the specific conviction is directly relevant to the specific job. No housing provider receiving federal assistance may categorically reject applicants based on criminal records without individualized assessment. Professional licensing boards may not categorically deny licenses based on criminal records unrelated to the licensed profession. These protections apply to all persons regardless of the nature of their record, subject only to reasonable exceptions for positions involving direct access to children, vulnerable adults, or public trust responsibilities.

Section 5 — Reparations: The Obligation to Remedy Documented Historical Injustice

The United States government engaged in legally sanctioned slavery from the nation's founding until 1865. Following abolition, the government engaged in a century of legally enforced racial apartheid — including the systematic denial of voting rights, educational opportunity, housing access, business loans, and wealth-building mechanisms to Black Americans — that produced a documented, quantifiable, and continuing wealth gap. The federal government also engaged in documented discrimination against Japanese Americans, Native Americans, Latino communities, and other groups through policies whose economic consequences compound to the present day.

The acknowledgment of these facts is not a political position — it is history. The obligation to study and address the ongoing economic consequences of government-sponsored discrimination is a constitutional obligation of this government, which is the successor to the governments that enacted those policies. The National Historical Injustice Commission established by Constitutional Statute shall produce a comprehensive economic accounting of the documented harm caused by federal discriminatory policies, calculate the range of approaches to remedy, and recommend specific remediation mechanisms to Congress. Congress must bring legislation addressing the Commission's findings to a recorded vote within three years of the Commission's final report. The right of Congress to determine the specific form of any remedy is preserved; the obligation to engage seriously with the question of remedy is constitutional.

[The National Historical Injustice Commission established in this Section is created, structured, and governed by CS-17 — National Historical Injustice Commission Act.]

Section 6 — Property Tax Standards

Property tax distinguishes homes from investment and commercial property.

Owner-occupied homes. Where a dwelling is occupied as a primary residence by its owner or by an immediate family member of the owner, a state or locality may levy property tax only against the assessed value of the land. The dwelling or other structure is not subject to recurring property tax and may be taxed only once, at the time of its construction or purchase, consistent with the taxation of any other purchased good. The assessed land value may not be increased by more than 1% annually above its value at the time of the parcel's most recent sale, regardless of any rise in market value during the owner's continuous ownership. This protection applies whether or not the home is subject to a mortgage or other lien.

Investment, rental, and commercial property. Where a property is rented or leased to another, is used for commercial purposes, or is not occupied by its owner or an immediate family member as a primary residence, it is subject to recurring property tax on its full assessed value, including both land and structures. The land-only rule, the assessment cap, and the retirement exemption of this Section do not apply to it. This full-value taxation of rental and commercial property funds the roads, schools, and public services on which all residents depend.

Retirement exemption. An owner who has held continuous ownership of the same owner-occupied home for not less than 25 years, who has reached the age the federal government recognizes as full retirement age, and who owns the home free of any mortgage or other lien, is exempt from land property tax on that property for the duration of their continued ownership and occupancy. Upon that owner's death, a surviving spouse or family member who occupied the property as their own primary residence before the death, and who continues to occupy it as their primary residence, retains this exemption regardless of their own age. The exemption does not transfer to any other person or property, and a new owner is subject to this Section's standards from the time of their own acquisition.

State rate-setting. A state or locality retains authority to set its own property tax rate to fund local services. That authority is subject to two limits: the home protections of this Section — land-only assessment, the 1% assessment cap, and the retirement exemption — are floors that no rate, formula, surcharge, reclassification, or other device may pierce or circumvent; and the effective rate applied to an owner-occupied home may not exceed the effective rate applied to investment, rental, or commercial property, so that the protection of homes may never be inverted into a penalty upon them.

[Implemented by CS-4 — Progressive Tax Framework Act.]

Section 7 — Enforcement May Not Be Starved

A tax owed by the powerful but never collected is a tax shifted onto everyone else. The capacity to enforce the tax laws against high-income individuals, large corporations, and complex entities may not be reduced below a floor, set by Constitutional Statute, proportional to the number, income, and complexity of those subject to enforcement. Audit and examination coverage of the highest-income returns and the largest entities may not fall below the rates that Statute sets, and the resources devoted to that enforcement may not be cut as a means of shielding the powerful from scrutiny. Tax enforcement is a constitutional duty owed to every honest taxpayer; to starve it selectively is to grant the wealthy a private exemption the law never wrote.

[Implemented by CS-4 — Progressive Tax Framework Act.]

Section 1 — National Referendum

A petition signed by 10% or more of registered voters in 30 or more states triggers a national referendum. A national law passes by a majority in 26 or more states. Constitutional amendments still require the Article Five threshold regardless of referendum results. Congress must schedule the referendum within 90 days of certification. The Office of the National Referendum administers this process as established by Constitutional Statute.

Section 2 — Public Financing

All federal campaign funding is state-administered public money.

Section 3 — No Private Money in Federal Elections

No candidate for any federal office may accept any private donation from any person, corporation, union, association, or other entity. No organization may make any expenditure in connection with any federal election.

Section 4 — Independent Citizen Expenditures

Individual citizens may make independent expenditures of up to $25,000 per election cycle for issue advocacy not coordinated with any candidate or party, with public disclosure within 48 hours. This cap is adjusted annually for inflation using the Consumer Price Index, with the base year being the year this Constitution takes effect.

Section 5 — Advertising Spending Cap

An advertising spending cap per candidate applies as established by Constitutional Statute.

Section 6 — Real-Time Public Accounting

A public real-time accounting system tracks all campaign expenditures.

Section 7 — Office of Public Campaign Finance

The Office of Public Campaign Finance administers this system; its Director serves a fixed term and is removable only by impeachment or upon a judicial finding of cause — meaning willful misconduct, a felony, or permanent incapacity.

Section 4 — Ranked-Choice Voting

All federal general elections use ranked-choice voting, enacted pursuant to Congress's plenary authority over federal elections under Article Three of this Constitution. This requirement applies exclusively to the tabulation of votes for federal offices — President, Senate, and House — and does not require states to use ranked-choice voting for their own state and local elections. The federal government provides all software, funding, and training necessary for states to implement ranked-choice counting for federal ballots. Parties choose their own primary format — open or closed at the party's election. At least two candidates must advance from any primary to the general election.

Section 5 — Disclosure and Permanent Lobbying Ban

Every federal officeholder and senior staff member must file annual financial disclosures. The GAO publishes a two-year tax summary for all federal officeholders.

The following persons are permanently prohibited from registering as lobbyists or from performing any lobbying function for the rest of their lives: Presidents, Vice Presidents, Members of Congress, Supreme Court Justices, and their senior staff — meaning chiefs of staff, deputy chiefs of staff, legislative directors, general counsel, communications directors, and any other staff member with authority to direct policy, negotiate on behalf of the official, or make decisions binding the official's office. Junior and administrative staff — including legislative assistants, caseworkers, schedulers, and interns — are not subject to the lifetime ban and instead face the six-year cooling-off period and lifetime foreign lobbying ban applicable to senior officials below this level. The lifetime ban extends to the immediate family members of covered officials and senior staff for the duration of the official's or senior staff member's service. Senior officials below this level face a six-year cooling-off period and a lifetime ban on foreign lobbying.

Section 1 — Executive Order Limits

Executive orders expire after four years, may be reissued once, and after two presidential terms must be codified by Congress or expire permanently.

Section 2 — Emergency Declaration Limits

Emergency declarations last 180 days and require congressional renewal to extend, with a maximum of two renewals.

Section 3 — Pardon Accountability

Pardon restrictions and personal criminal liability for corrupt pardons are established in Article Four, Section 2.

Section 4 — Revolving Door and Foreign Lobbying Ban

The six-year revolving door ban and lifetime foreign lobbying ban are established in Article Nine, Section 5.

Section 5 — Agency Independence; Inspector General Protection

No branch of government may defund or reduce the appropriations of any federal agency below the level necessary to fulfill its statutory mandate. Statutory overreach by any agency may be corrected by Congress by simple majority vote with a specific written finding identifying the overreach.

Every principal department and major agency of the executive branch shall have an Inspector General with independent authority to audit, investigate, and report on waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement within that agency. Inspectors General are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for seven-year staggered terms. An Inspector General may be removed only for cause — defined as willful misconduct, a felony conviction, a material ethics violation, or permanent incapacity — and for no reason related to the subject matter of any ongoing or completed investigation. A removal motivated by an IG's investigative work is void regardless of any pretextual cause stated.

The President must notify Congress in writing 30 days before removing any Inspector General, stating the specific cause with particularity. The affected Inspector General may, within 5 days of the removal notice, petition the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for review, which must render its decision within 60 days. The Inspector General retains full authority pending the court's ruling on a motion for a stay, which the court grants upon a showing of a likelihood of success on the merits and irreparable harm, applying ordinary equitable standards. While any stay is in effect, the Inspector General may not be reassigned, demoted, or have their jurisdiction restricted.

Inspectors General report simultaneously to the agency head and directly to the relevant congressional oversight committees with equal authority. No agency head may direct, delay, restrict, or suppress an Inspector General's report, investigation, or subpoena. An attempt to do so constitutes obstruction of a constitutional function and is itself subject to investigation by any other Inspector General or the Government Accountability Office. Retaliation against any employee who cooperates with, reports to, or provides information to an Inspector General is a federal crime carrying personal liability for the retaliating official. No Inspector General office may be left vacant to defeat this Section: the President shall nominate a successor within 90 days of any vacancy, and if the office is not filled, the senior career official within it shall automatically serve as Acting Inspector General with the full authority and protections of a confirmed Inspector General until the Senate confirms a successor. An empty watchdog office is as much a violation of this Section as a suppressed one.

Section 6 — Media Accountability; Anti-Nepotism

A self-regulatory Public Airwaves Accountability Board maintains truth and public service standards for broadcast licensees. No single person, corporation, or entity under common ownership or control shall own or operate news or broadcasting outlets reaching more than 40% of the national audience in any single medium, or reaching more than 40% of the American adult population in aggregate across all media types combined. The cross-ownership prohibition for communications platforms reaching 10% or more of the American adult population, including the effective-control standard and mandatory divestiture remedy, is established under Article Eighteen, Section 2.

The anti-nepotism prohibition established in Article Two applies to all federal appointments by all federal officials and is enforced as provided in that Article.

Section 7 — Algorithmic Transparency

Any platform that uses automated systems to amplify, suppress, or alter the distribution of political content must disclose to each user whether that content’s distribution has been algorithmically altered and whether any payment was made to amplify it.

Section 8 — The Right to a Chronological Feed

Every user has the right to view any platform’s political content in reverse chronological order without algorithmic modification.

Section 9 — Think Tank and Advocacy Disclosure

Think tanks and advocacy organizations that spend significant time advancing specific legislation must register and disclose funders and expenditures as established by Constitutional Statute.

Section 10 — Lobbyist Meeting Disclosure

Every Member of Congress and senior congressional staffer must publicly disclose within 48 hours any meeting with a registered lobbyist, foreign agent, or paid advocate about pending legislation, including who attended and the general topic discussed.

Section 11 — Comprehensive Whistleblower Protection Act Directive

Congress shall enact a Comprehensive Whistleblower Protection Act that establishes a unified standard for protected disclosure applicable across all federal statutes and all sectors of the economy. The Act must provide: a private right of action in federal court with a minimum three-year statute of limitations running from the date the discloser knew or reasonably should have known of the retaliation; reinstatement, back pay, compensatory damages, and punitive damages as mandatory available remedies; an independent federal Whistleblower Protection Ombudsman with independent investigative authority, direct reporting to Congress, and removal-for-cause protections equivalent to those provided to Inspectors General under Article 10, Section 5; and criminal penalties for any person who retaliates against a protected discloser.

No non-disclosure agreement, employment contract, security clearance condition, or government classification decision may be used to prohibit a person from reporting potential violations of law, safety hazards, fraud, or abuse of authority to any responsible oversight authority. This prohibition is self-executing — it requires no further legislation to take effect, and any agreement that violates it is void from the moment of execution, not merely from the date of judicial decision. Prosecutors and enforcement agencies may not condition prosecution declinations, deferred prosecution agreements, or civil settlements on requirements that would prevent a witness or party from reporting related conduct to oversight authorities.

Section 1 — Constitutional Requirements of the Essential Care System

The Essential Care system shall operate under the following constitutional requirements, with mechanisms established by Constitutional Statute: (a) price ceilings on all Essential Care services, below which market competition is permitted; (b) insurance companies providing Essential Care are regulated utilities with overhead limits, prior authorization restrictions, and surprise billing prohibitions; (c) drug prices for Essential Care medications shall not exceed an international reference price established by Constitutional Statute, with a limited premium for new drugs during their initial market period; (d) no hospital system shall control more than 30% of the healthcare market in any regional area; (e) Congress shall maintain a public option — a government-run healthcare plan available to all at cost with no profit motive — that may not be defunded to protect private insurers; (f) dental, vision, and hearing care are included in Essential Care; (g) Medicare buy-in at 60 on a sliding-scale basis is available to all persons who qualify; (h) any executive who knowingly designs or implements a systematic policy of denying medically necessary Essential Care primarily to increase profits faces personal criminal liability and personal civil liability not indemnifiable by their employer; (i) the Healthcare Trust Fund is ring-fenced from the general federal budget; (j) Congress shall maintain a Strategic Essential Medicines Reserve as a backstop when markets fail to supply essential medications; and (k) the regulation of the price of medicines and health goods and services, and the negotiation of prices as a condition of participation in the Essential Care System, is a legitimate exercise of the power to protect public health and does not constitute a taking of private property. No person holds a constitutional right to an unregulated or monopoly price for a medicine. A patent or other exclusive right in a medicine is a public grant of a limited monopoly, granted on the condition that it serve the public good, and the public's reservation of authority to license its use for a reasonable royalty, or to regulate its price, when necessary to make an essential medicine available and affordable, is a term of that grant and not a deprivation of property. Participation in the Essential Care System is a voluntary commercial relationship; a manufacturer or seller may decline to participate, but may not both withhold an essential medicine from the public and prevent the public from obtaining it through licensed production or public manufacture; and (l) the public option required by subsection (e) shall enroll every child automatically from birth, with no waiting period and no gap in coverage, subject to a parent's or guardian's right to opt the child into other qualifying coverage; default enrollment in the public option shall also attach automatically at the coverage-transition points of working life, subject to a right to opt out, so that coverage is the default condition of every person and its absence requires an affirmative choice. The automatic enrollment of children admits no phase-in or delay. A risk-equalization mechanism shall operate among the public option and private insurers so that no plan is advantaged by enrolling the healthy or burdened by enrolling the sick. and (m) Essential Care is a universal floor covering all medically necessary care, and it may never be diminished, delayed, or made harder to obtain for any person because a private enhanced plan exists; the adequacy of the floor is protected independently of any private tier. An employer may offer, and contribute to, an enhanced health plan providing benefits above the Essential Care floor — such as elective procedures, expedited scheduling, broader provider choice, private accommodation, and comparable amenities — but no enhanced plan may substitute for, condition, gate, or reduce any person's Essential Care, and any term purporting to do so is void. Enrollment in an enhanced plan is voluntary for the employee and requires only a change-of-status filing; no person may be penalized, taxed, or denied Essential Care for declining one, and no individual mandate to hold private coverage shall exist. Every employer that provides work bears a share of the nation's care burden proportional to its size and revenue; this obligation rises smoothly with the employer's scale, without threshold or cliff, and an employer that does not meet it through an enhanced plan contributes the equivalent to the public Essential Care fund. Where an employer offers or contributes to an enhanced plan, every worker engaged twenty or more hours per week is eligible on equal terms. The contribution schedule, filing mechanism, and enforcement are established by Constitutional Statute.

Section 1 — Federal Surveillance

The federal government may operate passive video surveillance only within 1,000 yards of federally owned buildings and facilities. Outside that zone, any targeted surveillance of a specific named individual requires a warrant specifying the individual, the crime under investigation, and a duration not exceeding 90 days. All federal surveillance data is the exclusive property of the federal government, may not be shared with private entities without a warrant, and may not be retained beyond 180 days unless part of an active warranted investigation. Bulk collection of surveillance data on persons not named in valid warrants is prohibited.

Section 2 — State Surveillance

States may operate surveillance within 1,000 yards of state-owned public buildings. State surveillance data is the exclusive property of the state. Vendors may retain only anonymized aggregate data. Every person has the right to access data collected about them by government surveillance systems through a real-time citizen portal, except where an active investigation is underway; courts confirm or deny the existence of active surveillance within 30 days of any inquiry.

Section 3 — Private Surveillance

Businesses may operate surveillance systems on their own property for security purposes. Three permitted law enforcement sharing scenarios are established by Constitutional Statute. Tampering with surveillance data or systems is a federal felony. Government officials who tamper face an enhanced charge at double the minimum penalty plus a lifetime bar from public office.

Section 1 — Living Wage

The federal minimum wage is set regionally at 50% of the BLS regional median hourly wage, updated every two years. No subminimum wage category exists for any class of worker. Overtime at time-and-a-half applies for hours 40-50; double-time applies above 50. No averaging across weeks is permitted. Constitutional Statute CS-6 establishes the specific regional formula and enforcement mechanisms.

Section 2 — Pay Transparency

Employers above the threshold established by CS-6 must publish pay ranges and report median pay by gender and race to a federal registry. Statistical disparities create a rebuttable presumption of discrimination.

Section 3 — Organizing Rights

Every worker — regardless of employment classification, industry, or immigration status — has the constitutional right to organize, join a union, bargain collectively, and strike. No employer may permanently replace a striking worker. Reinstatement upon conclusion of a strike is mandatory. Union membership is voluntary — no worker may be compelled to join or pay dues as a condition of employment.

Section 4 — Gig Worker Employment Presumption

Any person performing work for a single entity constituting more than 50% of their income over 90 consecutive days is presumed to be an employee entitled to all protections of this Article, unless the engaging entity establishes all four conditions of the ABC test as established in CS-6. The engaging entity bears the burden. Any single condition unmet maintains the employment presumption.

Section 5 — Data Pricing

When personal data is used to set a higher price than the standard rate, disclosure is required at point of sale. Any customer may request the standard non-personalized price and may not be denied it.

Section 6 — Worker Protections Against Offshoring

Any corporation primarily organized in or primarily doing business in the United States that relocates operations outside the United States resulting in the net elimination of 50 or more jobs within 12 months must provide: 180 days written notice to affected workers; and severance of not less than one month's pay per year of service. Corporations that relocate without meeting these obligations are ineligible for federal contracts, tax credits, subsidies, or public rescue for five years following the relocation; ineligibility for public rescue extends to ten years.

Section 7 — Workplace Safety

Implemented by: CS-6 — Workers' Rights Implementation Act, Fight 14 (Workplace Safety provisions)

Every worker has the right to a workplace free from recognized hazards that are likely to cause death or serious physical harm. This right is not contingent on the size of the employer, the sector of the economy, or the classification of the worker — it applies to every person who performs labor in exchange for compensation, regardless of whether they are classified as an employee or an independent contractor.

No employer may require a worker to perform any task that presents an imminent danger to their life or safety. A worker who refuses to perform work that presents a specific, articulable, imminent danger to their life or physical safety — meaning a condition that could reasonably be expected to cause death or serious physical harm before the hazard can be eliminated through normal enforcement — may not be discharged, disciplined, demoted, reduced in pay, or otherwise penalized for that refusal. The refusal must be made in good faith; the worker need not prove the danger was real, only that a reasonable person in the same circumstances would have concluded the danger was present.

Employers must report any work-related death to the responsible federal agency within 8 hours of learning of the death, and any work-related hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye within 24 hours. Failure to report is itself a violation independent of the underlying incident. Workers, their designated representatives, and recognized unions have the right to request a safety inspection of any workplace by the responsible federal agency and to accompany the inspector during that inspection. An employer may not interfere with, delay, or discourage a requested inspection.

Congress shall implement this right by statute establishing specific safety standards by industry and hazard type, inspection authority and frequency, citation and penalty procedures with penalties calibrated to the severity of the violation and the resources of the employer, and enhanced penalties for willful or repeat violations. Retaliation against any worker who reports a safety violation, requests an inspection, participates in an inspection, or exercises the right of refusal is a federal crime. Congress shall also establish a private right of action for workers harmed by willful safety violations.

[Implemented by CS-6 — Workers' Rights Implementation Act.]

Section 8 — Pension and Retirement Benefits: Earned Rights Cannot Be Taken

Pension and retirement benefits that a worker has earned through their labor are deferred wages. They are not a gift from the employer, not a discretionary benefit subject to unilateral revision, and not an asset of the employer available for corporate purposes. Once a worker has met the applicable vesting requirements established by their plan or by law, their accrued pension benefit is a vested property right protected by this Constitution. No employer — and no plan sponsor, trustee, bankruptcy court, or successor entity — may unilaterally reduce, eliminate, or transfer a vested accrued pension benefit without the informed written consent of the affected worker. This protection applies to defined benefit pension plans, defined contribution plans, and any hybrid arrangement in which the employer has made a binding commitment to provide a specific benefit.

An employer who sponsors a defined benefit pension plan has an ongoing fiduciary obligation to fund that plan adequately to meet its projected benefit obligations. Plan assets are held in trust for the exclusive benefit of plan participants and beneficiaries — they may not be used for any corporate purpose, returned to the employer, or invested in ways that primarily serve the employer's interests rather than participants' interests. Every plan fiduciary — whether a corporate officer, external investment manager, or plan administrator — is personally liable for losses caused by a breach of this fiduciary duty. Fiduciary responsibility cannot be waived, delegated away, or disclaimed by contract.

Workers must be informed annually of the funded status of any defined benefit plan in which they participate, expressed in plain language as the percentage of projected obligations currently funded and the trend over the preceding five years. A plan that falls below 80% funded status must notify participants immediately and establish a remediation schedule approved by the responsible federal agency. A plan sponsor that knowingly provides false or misleading information about a plan's funded status to participants or to regulators is subject to criminal liability. Any pension beneficiary whose vested benefits are proposed to be reduced in a bankruptcy or reorganization proceeding has standing as a party in interest in that proceeding for the purpose of asserting their constitutional rights under this Article. The bankruptcy or reorganization court must make an explicit finding that any proposed pension reduction complies with the constitutional requirements of this provision before confirming any plan containing such a reduction. A plan confirmation that fails to make this finding is appealable by any affected pension beneficiary on an expedited basis to the relevant circuit court.

Congress shall establish a federal insurance mechanism for defined benefit plans that guarantees minimum benefits in the event of plan termination due to employer insolvency. The insurance program shall be funded by premiums paid by covered employers, with premium rates calibrated to the funded status and risk profile of each plan — employers who maintain adequately funded plans pay lower premiums than those who allow funding deficits to accumulate. Workers in plans that terminate due to employer insolvency shall receive guaranteed minimum benefits without interruption while the insurance determination is pending.

[Implemented by CS-6 — Workers' Rights Implementation Act.]

Section 1 — Housing as National Infrastructure

Housing is national infrastructure. Congress shall maintain a National Housing Infrastructure Program. Federal infrastructure funds are conditioned on states and localities eliminating single-family-only zoning, establishing 90-day permitting processes, and removing parking minimums near transit. Congress shall maintain a matched savings homebuyer program and a Community Reinvestment Infrastructure Fund targeting historically redlined census tracts. Specific parameters are established by Constitutional Statute.

Section 2 — Broadband as Essential Infrastructure

Broadband internet is essential public infrastructure. Congress shall maintain a Universal Broadband Service Program ensuring every household has access to broadband meeting the minimum speed standard established by Constitutional Statute. Any internet service provider controlling 40% or more of any geographic market is a common carrier — it may not throttle, block, or engage in paid prioritization of lawful internet traffic. State participation in federal broadband programs is voluntary.

Section 1 — Free Community College

Tuition at all public community colleges is free for citizens and qualifying lawful permanent residents. Congress funds all eligible students. Operational details established by CS-8.

Section 2 — Public University Tuition Cap

Annual tuition at public four-year universities may not exceed 10% of the state median household income. Federal grants cover the gap for eligible students. Details in CS-8.

Section 3 — Teacher Pay Floor

The federal government establishes a minimum teacher pay floor at the regional median wage for holders of a bachelor's degree in each BLS region, updated every two years. States may pay more. Details in CS-8.

Section 4 — Universal Childcare

No working or student family pays more than 7% of gross household income for licensed childcare for children under five. The federal government funds all eligible families. Parents choose their provider. No government entity may impose any curriculum on any provider. Details in CS-8.

Section 5 — School Choice

Each family is entitled to a Portable Education Account funded at 80% of per-pupil expenditure, usable at any accredited school — public, private, or religious — that does not discriminate on the basis of any characteristic protected by this Constitution, is accredited by a recognized body, and respects organizing rights for non-ministerial staff. Public schools retain 20% of per-pupil expenditure. State administration is voluntary. Details in CS-8.

Section 6 — Parental Rights

Parents may access their child's complete curriculum and may opt their own child out of specific instruction they object to. No parent may opt their child out of factually accurate science, history, or civics instruction. Opt-out rights cover only the parent's own child.

Section 1 — National Climate Science Board

An independent National Climate Science Board of climate scientists sets emissions reduction targets based on the best available science. Members serve staggered eight-year terms, have no financial interest in energy companies, and may not be directed by elected officials on their scientific findings. Composition details in CS-7.

Section 2 — Congressional Climate Strategy

Congress shall maintain an active National Climate Strategy updated at least every five years with specific, quantified emissions reduction targets. A strategy is constitutionally inadequate as a matter of law if: (a) it lacks specific, quantified targets for each five-year period; (b) the Congressional Budget Office projects it will achieve less than 50% of its own stated targets; or (c) the Science Board certifies by two-thirds vote that it is scientifically incapable of achieving its stated temperature stabilization targets. Any person may challenge an inadequate strategy on these three objective criteria only. Courts may compel Congress to bring a replacement to a recorded vote within one year but may not dictate content. Federal operations achieve net-zero emissions by January 1, 2040.

Section 3 — Energy Tax Neutrality

No fuel source or energy technology may receive preferential federal tax treatment unavailable to competing alternatives. Technology-neutral clean energy credits are a permitted additional deduction category.

Section 4 — Environmental Burden Standard

No new major polluting facility may be sited in a community whose environmental burden already exceeds the national median, without a demonstrated net pollution reduction in that community. The National Environmental Burden Registry maps pollution burdens across all census tracts annually. Details in CS-7.

Section 5 — Grid Modernization

The national electrical grid is critical national infrastructure. Congress shall maintain a technology-neutral National Grid Modernization Program. FERC enforces reliability standards.

Section 1 — National Historical Injustice Commission

A 15-member independent commission with subpoena power and a five-year mandate produces a factual economic accounting of the legacy of slavery and government-sanctioned racial injustice. It may not be defunded before delivering its final report. Congress must hold public hearings within six months of delivery and bring specific legislation to a recorded vote within two years.

Section 2 — Marijuana

Federal marijuana prohibition ends upon ratification. Every federal conviction for simple possession is automatically expunged within 180 days. Re-scheduling requires an NIH scientific finding and federal court affirmation.

Section 3 — Federal Death Penalty Abolished

The federal government may not carry out any execution. Life without parole is the federal maximum. All existing federal death sentences are automatically converted to life upon ratification within 180 days. No hearing is required. Converted persons may petition for further reduction within one year. The automatic conversion is the constitutional floor and may not itself be contested.

Section 4 — Social Security

No act of Congress may reduce Social Security benefits below ratification-era levels, increase the retirement age, or reduce the payroll tax cap. The Trust Fund is ring-fenced from the general budget. Congress may expand benefits if fully funded within Social Security's own financing structure for 75 years.

Section 5 — Diplomatic Parity

Diplomacy, foreign assistance, and international development are funded at no less than 10% of the defense appropriation each fiscal year. Reducing this floor requires a three-fifths supermajority of both chambers.

Section 6 — Voting Rights Preclearance

Any jurisdiction subject to a judgment — whether or not final on appeal — finding a violation of any federal voting rights law enters mandatory preclearance from the date of that judgment for ten years from the original district court judgment. During preclearance, no voting law change takes effect without prior approval. Reversal on appeal exits preclearance within 30 days. These provisions apply equally to every jurisdiction nationwide.

Section 7 — Washington, Douglass Commonwealth

The District of Columbia, excluding the federal enclave described in Article Three, Section 7, is admitted as a state under the name Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, pursuant to Article Six, Section 3, upon certification of a majority referendum of District residents in favor of statehood. Because the District of Columbia is not currently part of any state, no state's consent is required for this admission.

Section 1 — The General Anti-Monopoly Principle; Private Equity Prohibition

No private entity may acquire or maintain dominance over any market, platform, network, or service essential to the daily life, economic participation, or democratic participation of Americans without being subject to democratic oversight. A market is essential when it meets any one of three objective criteria: (a) no practical alternative exists for a basic need; (b) participation is a practical prerequisite to full economic or democratic participation; or (c) a single entity controls pricing without meaningful competitive constraint. The FTC makes written designation findings, published for 90-day public comment, subject to substantial evidence judicial review. Democratic accountability requirements, antitrust enforcement as a constitutional obligation, and private rights of action are established. Details in CS-9.

Private Equity Extraction Prohibition. No private equity firm may acquire a controlling interest in any hospital, nursing home, assisted living facility, emergency medical service, or local newspaper that is the primary or sole provider of that service within a 50-mile radius. For existing holdings, acquiring entities may not load debt above 3x EBITDA, charge management fees above 2% of annual revenue, pay distributions while operational obligations are past due, or reduce staffing below regulatory minimums. Violations trigger mandatory divestiture and personal civil liability for controlling executives. Specific parameters in CS-9.

Section 2 — Communications Platform Accountability; Cross-Ownership Prohibition

Any platform used by 10% or more of American adults as a primary political news or information source is a common carrier for political speech. It must carry all political speech without viewpoint discrimination and apply its rules evenhandedly across all viewpoints. Platforms may use content-neutral algorithms — applied consistently. Platforms are not required to actively amplify any content. Platform owners may not direct their platforms to suppress or amplify content based on the owner's political or financial interests; any such owner-directed treatment must be disclosed. No individual may simultaneously hold controlling interests in more than one platform reaching 10%+ of Americans across different media categories. Mandatory divestiture within 18 months; no exemptions or grandfathering. The Digital Communications Accountability Board enforces this section. Details in CS-12.

Section 3 — Regulatory Capture Prohibition

No person may serve in any senior regulatory position at a federal agency if, within the preceding seven years, they worked as a registered lobbyist for the regulated industry, served as a senior executive of a company in that industry, or received more than $500,000 in compensation from companies in that industry. The same seven-year restriction applies post-service. Appointments in violation are void. Post-service violations are a federal felony with mandatory minimum penalties, forfeiture, and permanent disqualification from federal office. OGE maintains a public quarterly registry. Details in CS-9.

Section 4 — Public Rescue Accountability

When the federal government provides any form of public rescue to any private entity meeting the essential market threshold, that rescue shall include as mandatory conditions: equity ownership by the federal government proportionate to funds provided; executive compensation limited to ten times the entity's median employee wage; prohibition on stock buybacks, dividends, and distributions; mandatory profit-sharing until the full public investment is returned; and structural reforms to prevent recurrence. Congress may provide more protection but not less. Executives who receive compensation in violation face personal liability for the full amount plus an equal civil penalty.

When the public holds an equity stake in any private enterprise — whether acquired through public rescue, strategic investment, capitalization, or as a condition of public support — that stake is held in trust for the people. It may not be sold, transferred, or surrendered to insiders, to the enterprise's officers or controlling owners, or on terms unavailable to the public, and its dividends, proceeds, and gains belong to the people and shall be paid into the permanent public trust established by law. The public's ownership share carries the public's interest, not merely a financial return; it may never be used to shield the enterprise from the duties this Constitution imposes.

[Implemented by CS-9.]

Section 5 — Corporate Stakeholder Governance: The End of Shareholder Primacy

There is a rule that has governed American corporate life for over a century without ever being enacted by a legislature, approved by voters, or reviewed by the Supreme Court of the United States. It is the rule that a corporation exists solely to generate financial returns for its shareholders — and that an officer or director who prioritizes workers, takes a moral stance, or chooses long-term value over short-term profit is legally exposed to shareholder lawsuits for doing so. The Supreme Court declined to review Dodge v. Ford Motor Co. (204 Mich. 459, 1919), the case that established this doctrine — and by that refusal, left every state to enforce it as the default rule of corporate governance. The result is a legal environment in which the CEO who wants to pay their workers well can be sued for it, and the founder who wants to refuse business with an entity they find morally repugnant can be forced into that relationship by a shareholder threatening litigation. This section ends that. The people of the United States, through this Constitution, hereby establish a different rule.

The Standard. No corporation, limited liability company, partnership, or other business entity operating under federal or state law — and no officer, director, founder, controlling person, or board member of any such entity — is required by federal or state law to prioritize the short-term financial returns of shareholders above the long-term interests of the entity's workers, customers, communities, or the public. The shareholder primacy doctrine, as established by Dodge v. Ford Motor Co. and propagated through state corporate law, has no force under this Constitution as applied to any of the decisions described in this section. Officers and directors exercising good-faith stakeholder governance judgment are acting within their lawful authority and within the constitutional expectations of American business leadership.

What Officers and Directors May Always Do. An officer, director, founder, or controlling person of any business entity operates within their lawful authority, and may not be held personally liable to shareholders or to the entity in any derivative proceeding based solely on the following categories of decision:

(a) Worker Compensation. Paying workers — at any level of the organization — wages, salaries, bonuses, profit-sharing, equity participation, benefits, or any other form of compensation at levels that the officer, director, or controlling person reasonably believes the business model can sustain over time, even when those levels are higher than the minimum required by law or higher than what maximizing short-term shareholder returns would otherwise allow. The right of a business leader to reward the people who built the business is a constitutional value. A shareholder who disagrees with that choice has a remedy: sell the stock.

(b) Moral and Ethical Business Decisions. Declining — or continuing to refuse — any business relationship, contract, partnership, supplier relationship, investment, or commercial transaction on the basis of moral, ethical, or values-based grounds. A founder who built a company on principles is not required by law to abandon those principles because a shareholder demands it. A CEO who will not do business with an entity that violates human rights, mistreats workers, or acts in ways the company finds incompatible with its stated values is acting in accordance with this Constitution, not in violation of their fiduciary duty. The right of a business to take a moral stance is not conditioned on shareholder approval.

(c) Community and Social Investment. Directing corporate resources toward the benefit of the communities in which the business operates, toward environmental improvement beyond legal minimums, toward charitable purposes, or toward any other social investment that the officer, director, or controlling person reasonably believes serves the long-term interest of the enterprise and the people who make it function. A business does not operate in a vacuum — it depends on communities, infrastructure, public education, and a functioning society. Investing in those things is not a breach of duty. It is business leadership.

(d) Long-Term Value Decisions. Any business decision that accepts lower short-term shareholder returns in favor of building durable long-term value through investments in workforce loyalty, customer trust, supplier stability, community relationships, product quality, or institutional integrity. A company that pays its workers well and operates by its principles may earn less in the next quarter. It may be worth more in the next decade. An officer or director who reasons this way is entitled to the protection of this section.

The Sell-Don't-Sue Principle. A shareholder who disagrees with a protected stakeholder decision under this section has one primary remedy available to them: sell their shares. Shareholders made a voluntary financial bet on the management and direction of a company. When management acts on the principles that define the company — including taking care of its workers and maintaining its moral commitments — shareholders who object vote with their dollars, not their lawyers. No shareholder may initiate or maintain a derivative suit, a breach of fiduciary duty claim, or any other legal action against an officer, director, or controlling person based solely on the fact that a decision protected by this section reduced short-term shareholder returns or failed to maximize the current market price of the entity's shares. Courts shall dismiss any such claim at the pleading stage upon a showing that the challenged decision falls within the protected categories of this section and was made in good faith. Nothing in this section prevents shareholders from voting their shares, speaking publicly, nominating directors, or pursuing any other normal corporate governance remedy — it prohibits the use of litigation to coerce officers and directors into abandoning their stakeholder responsibilities under threat of personal financial ruin.

Preserved Liability. The protection of this section is not immunity from accountability — it is protection for doing right by workers and acting on principle. Nothing in this section limits the personal liability of any officer, director, or controlling person for: fraud committed against shareholders, workers, customers, or any other party; self-dealing transactions in which the protected person receives personal financial benefit at the expense of the entity or its shareholders through mechanisms other than ordinary compensation; gross negligence in the management of the entity's core business operations; violations of this Constitution, federal law, or any applicable state law; or any decision that enriches management at the direct expense of shareholders through bad-faith extraction rather than good-faith stakeholder investment. The line this section draws is clear: protecting those who reward their workers and act on their values; preserving accountability for those who defraud, steal, or recklessly destroy.

Application and Federal Floor. This section applies to all corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships, trusts, and other business entities formed under federal or state law, whether publicly traded or privately held. For entities formed under state law, this section establishes a constitutional floor that supersedes any inconsistent state corporate law doctrine — no state may impose, by statute, common law rule, or judicial precedent, a shareholder primacy duty that this section prohibits. States may enact more protective stakeholder governance laws; they may not impose less. Congress shall establish the implementing framework through the Anti-Oligarchy Implementation Act, which shall include: procedures for invoking this section's protections as a defense in any federal or state court proceeding; a standard of good faith for purposes of this section; and private remedies for any officer, director, or controlling person subjected to legal proceedings in violation of this section's protections.

Section 6 — The Pairing of Price Limits with Relief of Pressure

Where this Constitution or a Constitutional Statute limits a price, rent, or fee that a person may be charged, or sets a floor beneath a wage or payment, the limit shall be paired with a mechanism sufficient to relieve the economic pressure the limit would otherwise create — whether by public subsidy, by the expansion of supply, by phased implementation, or by other effective means — so that the protection does not produce the shortage, the withdrawal of supply, the degradation of quality, or the unlawful market it was meant to prevent.

A price limit imposed without such a mechanism, where the limit would predictably cause such an effect, is incomplete, and the body that imposes it bears the duty to supply the accompanying mechanism. The principle is that the cost of protecting a person from an unjust price is borne by the public that chooses to protect them, and is not imposed as a hidden shortage upon the very people the protection was meant to serve, nor upon those who must supply the good or service at the limited price.

This principle states a duty of sound design; it does not authorize the weakening of any protection. The answer to a price limit that strains supply is to add the mechanism that relieves the strain, never to abandon the protection.

Section 7 — Uniform Commercial Law and the Protection of the Person

Commerce in the United States is national and, increasingly, global; the law that governs it must not be fragmented in a manner that allows the powerful to choose the rules that bind the weak. Congress shall establish, or require among the states, a uniform body of commercial law governing contracts, the sale of goods, secured transactions, negotiable instruments, and comparable commercial dealings, so that the basic rules of commerce do not depend on which jurisdiction a party has chosen.

The law follows the person, not the forum the stronger party selects. A contract term that selects the governing law, the forum, or the venue for resolving disputes is unenforceable to the extent it deprives a natural person of the protections of the law of their own residence, or of the protections this Constitution guarantees. No enterprise may, by drafting, by choice-of-law clause, by the place of its incorporation, or by the location of its operations, escape the protections owed to the people it deals with. The protections a person holds travel with the person; they are not surrendered by signing a form the person did not write and could not negotiate.

Contracts are enforced, and honestly construed. Agreements honestly made are enforceable, and are construed to give effect to the reasonable understanding of an ordinary party, not to traps concealed in language drafted by the stronger side. A contract term is unenforceable to the extent it is unconscionable, or is hidden, or is imposed on a take-it-or-leave-it basis in a manner that defeats genuine agreement. Every commercial dealing carries an obligation of good faith and fair dealing that may not be waived.

No predatory extraction. Congress shall set a uniform ceiling on interest and the cost of credit sufficient to prohibit usury and predatory lending, applicable to all who lend to the public, so that a lender may not escape the limit by choosing the jurisdiction from which it lends. The exploitation of a person's necessity, inexperience, or lack of bargaining power to impose terms that no informed and free party would accept is prohibited.

Section 8 — Non-Delegation of Governmental Power

The powers of government belong to the public and may not be transferred to private hands. No inherently governmental function may be delegated, contracted, or surrendered to any private entity. An inherently governmental function is one that involves the exercise of public authority, discretion, or coercive power — including the power to make or enforce law or regulation, to adjudicate rights, to detain or use force, to determine who receives a public benefit or penalty, to set the standards by which an industry or the government itself is measured, or to direct the conduct of other government functions. The government may purchase goods and ordinary services from private parties; it may not purchase the exercise of its own authority. A private entity performing work for the government may inform, advise, and support a decision, but a government officer accountable to the public must make it.

No private entity may write, or be paid to write, the regulations, standards, or oversight rules that govern its own industry, nor audit or certify its own compliance. Where a governmental function has been delegated to a contractor in violation of this Section, the delegation is void, the function returns to public control, and no contract term may prevent its return. Public funds paid to any private entity carry the public's right to inspect, audit, and account for their use; no private entity may treat the performance of a public function, or the receipt of public money, as a private secret. (CS-9)

Section 9 — No Entity Too Big to Answer

No person and no entity may be placed beyond the reach of the law by reason of its size. No investigation, charge, or prosecution otherwise warranted may be declined, abandoned, or softened on the ground that enforcement would threaten the entity’s size, its profitability, or the stability of the financial system. Where conduct would otherwise warrant prosecution, a decision to resolve it instead by a deferred-prosecution or non-prosecution agreement must be justified on the public record, approved by a court, and may never rest on the entity’s size or systemic importance alone. A penalty imposed for unlawful conduct must be sufficient to deter it and may never be set at a level that lets the entity treat the law as a cost of doing business. What is a crime for a person of ordinary means does not cease to be one because the wrongdoer is large.

The structural safeguards against institutions whose failure would threaten the economy — the prohibition on becoming too big to fail, and the accountability that attaches to any public rescue — stand alongside this Section; together they ensure that no enterprise is too large to save and none too large to answer. (CS-9)

Section 1 — Inherent Sovereignty

The United States recognizes the inherent sovereignty of every federally recognized Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian nation. Tribal sovereignty predates this Constitution and every constitution before it. It is not granted by this document; this document acknowledges and protects sovereignty that already exists and that this nation's own courts have recognized for two centuries. The United States and tribal nations stand in a government-to-government relationship — not a superior-to-subordinate relationship, not a federal-to-state relationship, but a relationship between sovereign governments with overlapping and mutually respectful jurisdictions.

Section 2 — Treaty Obligations Are Supreme Law

All treaties between the United States and tribal nations are the supreme law of the land, equal in status to this Constitution's provisions and superseding any federal or state statute to the contrary. Treaties may not be abrogated, modified, or reinterpreted to diminish tribal rights without the free, prior, and informed consent of the affected nation — expressed through that nation's own legitimate governmental processes, not through congressional unilateral action. Unilateral congressional abrogation of a treaty with a tribal nation is a constitutional violation enforceable in federal court. Congress may enact legislation that implements or supplements treaty provisions, but implementation may not serve as a vehicle for diminishment.

The federal government bears an affirmative duty to honor all existing treaty obligations, including those that have been honored inconsistently or not at all. Congress shall appropriate funds sufficient to fulfill all outstanding treaty obligations within five years of ratification of this Constitution. The Department of Justice shall maintain a public register of all outstanding treaty obligations, the status of compliance, and the funding required to achieve full compliance.

Section 3 — The Federal Trust Responsibility

The federal government owes a trust responsibility to tribal nations — a fiduciary obligation of the highest order to protect tribal lands, resources, cultural patrimony, governmental authority, and the physical welfare of tribal members. This trust responsibility is judicially enforceable as a constitutional duty, not merely a policy aspiration. A federal agency that takes an action inconsistent with the trust responsibility may be enjoined and held liable for resulting harm without the defense of sovereign immunity.

Before taking any major action that may significantly affect tribal lands, resources, rights, treaty rights, or governmental authority, every federal agency must conduct meaningful government-to-government consultation with affected tribal nations. Meaningful consultation requires: advance written notice with sufficient time to allow the nation to prepare its response; a genuine exchange — not a notification followed by a predetermined outcome; a written record of the consultation; a written response addressing each substantive concern raised; and documentation that the agency considered tribal input before making its final decision. The agency bears the burden of demonstrating that consultation was meaningful. An action taken without required consultation is voidable at the petition of the affected tribal nation.

Section 4 — Tribal Self-Governance

Tribal nations have the inherent authority to govern themselves, their members, and activities within their territorial jurisdiction. This authority includes the power to determine tribal membership; to establish and operate tribal governments, courts, law enforcement, and administrative agencies; to tax persons and activities within tribal jurisdiction; to regulate commerce, land use, and resource extraction on tribal lands; and to establish and enforce tribal law consistent with this Constitution's individual rights guarantees. Tribal law governs within tribal jurisdiction; federal and state law govern outside it; where jurisdictions overlap, the trust responsibility and treaty obligations govern the resolution.

Tribal courts have full civil and criminal jurisdiction over matters arising on tribal lands, subject only to the protections of this Constitution's Bill of Rights as applied to tribal governments. This jurisdiction extends to all persons on tribal lands, including non-members and non-Indians. The limitation on tribal criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians established by prior federal judicial precedent is expressly superseded by this provision. Federal courts may review tribal court decisions only for compliance with this Constitution's individual rights guarantees — not for errors of tribal law, which are exclusively within the tribal court's authority to interpret. Non-Indian defendants in tribal criminal proceedings retain all rights guaranteed by Article Two of this Constitution, which are enforceable in tribal court and on habeas review in federal court. Congress may not eliminate or restrict tribal judicial authority except with the written consent of the affected nation.

Section 5 — Voluntary Pathways: Statehood, Territorial Status, and Enhanced Compact

No tribal nation is required to seek any change in its political status. The sovereign, treaty-nation relationship described in this Article is permanent unless a tribal nation affirmatively and voluntarily chooses otherwise through its own legitimate governmental processes. The options in this Section are offered, not imposed. The decision rests entirely with each nation.

Voluntary statehood. Any tribal nation — or coalition of tribal nations through a formal compact — that chooses to seek admission to the United States as a state may petition Congress for statehood. The petition process shall follow the same requirements as statehood petitions from territories, with the additional requirement of a ratification vote by at least two-thirds of the tribal nation's adult enrolled members. Upon admission as a state, the tribal nation's members gain full congressional representation and presidential voting rights. Tribal law, tribal courts, and tribal governmental structures continue in operation as the state's foundational governmental institutions, subject to the same federal constitutional requirements as any state. Treaty rights are not extinguished by statehood and continue in full force as part of the state's constitutional compact.

Voluntary territorial status. Any tribal nation that chooses enhanced federal representation without full statehood may petition Congress for recognized territorial status. A tribal territory has: voting representation in the House of Representatives proportional to population; a non-voting delegate in the Senate with full committee rights and floor speaking privileges; the right to vote in presidential elections; eligibility for all federal programs on the same per-capita terms as states; and continued operation of tribal governmental structures, courts, and law. A tribal territory is not a state and retains its government-to-government relationship with the federal government. Territorial status is reversible — a tribal territory may withdraw from territorial status by the same vote required to adopt it.

Enhanced compact relationship. Any tribal nation that chooses neither statehood nor territorial status but wishes a more formally defined relationship with the federal government may negotiate an Enhanced Compact — a comprehensive bilateral agreement specifying the mutual obligations, funding commitments, jurisdictional boundaries, and dispute resolution mechanisms that will govern the relationship for a defined period. Enhanced Compacts are treaties for purposes of this Constitution and may not be modified without mutual consent. Congress shall appropriate funds sufficient to honor all Enhanced Compact obligations.

Section 6 — Funding Parity

Congress shall appropriate funds to tribal governments for the exercise of their governmental responsibilities — including law enforcement, courts, health care, education, housing, infrastructure, and social services — at a level per capita comparable to the funding provided to state governments for equivalent services. The chronic underfunding of tribal governmental services relative to state services is a violation of the trust responsibility. The Office of Management and Budget shall publish an annual Tribal-State Funding Parity Report documenting per-capita funding levels for equivalent services and identifying shortfalls. Congress must respond to each identified shortfall with either appropriations to address it or written findings explaining why equivalent funding is not required in the specific case.

[Article Twenty: No separate Constitutional Statute is designated for tribal sovereignty as a whole; this Article is self-executing. Treaty obligations are implemented through the existing treaty framework and through appropriations acts that must meet the funding parity standard established in Section 6. The voluntary pathway provisions (statehood, territorial status, enhanced compact) are implemented through standard Article I legislation for each nation that elects a pathway.]

Section 1 — The Best Interests of the Child

In all actions taken by government — legislative, executive, judicial, or administrative — that significantly affect children, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration. This standard applies to every branch and every level of government. It does not override other constitutional provisions, but it requires that before any significant action affecting children is taken, a genuine assessment of how that action serves or harms children's welfare, development, and rights must be conducted and documented. Courts reviewing government actions that significantly affect children shall apply heightened scrutiny to whether the best interests standard was considered and honored.

Section 2 — Family Unity; Prohibition on Punitive Family Separation

Every child has the right to family unity — the right to remain with their parents or primary caregivers unless removal is necessary to protect the child from abuse, neglect, or imminent danger. Family separation as a deterrent — the policy of separating children from parents as a mechanism to discourage migration, as a tool of immigration enforcement, or as punishment for any act by the parent — is prohibited. It is not a legitimate governmental interest to traumatize children to deter adult behavior.

When a child must be removed from their family for protective reasons, the removal must be the minimum necessary intervention, must be reviewed by a court within 48 hours, and must be accompanied by a plan for family reunification unless reunification would endanger the child. Siblings shall not be separated from each other in removal placements except where the placement of siblings together cannot be arranged and delay would endanger a child. The right of a child to maintain contact with their parents, siblings, and extended family during any separation — unless contact poses a documented danger — is protected.

Section 3 — Juvenile Justice; No Life Without Parole for Children

Children are not adults. The developing brain, the diminished impulse control, the susceptibility to peer pressure, and the greater capacity for rehabilitation that characterize childhood and adolescence are established facts of human development that the legal system must reflect. A child under 18 may not be tried as an adult except for homicide or other serious violent felonies, and only after a judicial hearing applying the best interests standard and considering the child's age, development, and circumstances. A child tried in adult court retains all the sentencing protections of this provision.

No child under the age of 18 at the time of the offense may be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, except for intentional homicide, and even then only upon specific judicial findings that the individual's characteristics and the circumstances of the offense justify permanent incapacitation. Children have a constitutionally recognized capacity for change that precludes permanent, total foreclosure of the possibility of release in all other cases. Any sentence that is effectively a life sentence — a term so long that the person will die in custody — is treated as a life sentence for purposes of this provision and requires the same judicial findings.

Section 4 — Protection from Commercial Exploitation

Children are not a market. No commercial entity may use manipulative design techniques in any product, platform, or service whose users are known to include children under 16. A design technique is manipulative for purposes of this provision if it: (a) is specifically designed to increase session duration or engagement frequency beyond the user's stated or default time limits; (b) uses variable reward schedules that produce compulsive checking behavior in users; (c) exploits social comparison mechanisms designed to produce anxiety, inadequacy, or fear of exclusion; (d) resists or circumvents user-set time limits or parental controls; or (e) withholds content or social validation to create return urgency. These criteria are not exclusive. Congress shall establish by statute an updated list of prohibited techniques, reviewed every three years by an independent expert panel. The use of children's data for behavioral targeting, profile-building, or targeted advertising is prohibited. This prohibition applies regardless of any parental consent mechanism, because children cannot meaningfully consent to the commercial exploitation of their developing psychology.

Congress shall establish enforceable design standards for products used by children, minimum age requirements for social media platforms, prohibitions on harvesting children's data for commercial purposes, and a private right of action for parents and children harmed by violations. The burden of demonstrating that a product does not deploy manipulative design techniques toward children rests on the company, not on the child or parent.

Section 5 — Child Labor Prohibition

No child under the age of 14 may perform any labor for compensation. Children between 14 and 17 may perform limited work under conditions that do not impair their education, health, or development, in hours and settings regulated by Congress. No child under 18 may perform work in hazardous conditions as defined by law. These prohibitions apply to all children within United States jurisdiction regardless of immigration status, family income, or any claimed economic necessity. The right of a child not to be made to work is absolute at the ages specified and qualified but protected above them.

Section 6 — Children's Right to Participate

Children have the right to express their views freely on all matters affecting them, and those views must be given weight appropriate to the child's age and maturity in any proceeding or decision that significantly affects their lives — including custody determinations, educational placements, medical decisions, immigration proceedings, and any other governmental action bearing primarily on the child's welfare. A child who is old enough to form views is old enough to be heard. Hearing a child does not mean following every expressed preference; it means giving the child's perspective genuine consideration in the decision-making process. In medical decision-making specifically: a child's expressed wishes receive weight proportional to their developmental maturity; a court may appoint a guardian ad litem to represent the child's interests independently of the parents'; and for life-or-death medical decisions where the child, parents, and medical providers cannot agree, the standard is the child's best interests as determined by a neutral judicial authority with medical advisory input. The medical autonomy right of Right 50 applies to competent adults; the best-interests standard of this Article governs medical decisions for persons who have not yet reached the voting age established in Right 34.

Implementation Note

Article Twenty-One is primarily self-executing. Courts apply the best-interests standard and family unity protections directly. Congressional implementing legislation is authorized for: the commercial exploitation prohibition (technical design specifications); child labor enforcement; and the juvenile justice procedural framework. These implementing statutes are not designated as Constitutional Statutes and may be enacted and amended by majority vote.

Section 1 — Why This Article Exists

Artificial intelligence systems and algorithmic decision-making tools are now used to make or influence consequential decisions about bail and detention, sentencing and parole, hiring and firing, loan approvals, healthcare coverage, insurance premiums, housing applications, educational admissions, child welfare interventions, immigration determinations, and access to government benefits. These systems operate at a scale no human institution could match, with a speed that forecloses meaningful review, and with a complexity that can obscure accountability behind technical opacity. They can replicate and amplify existing discrimination at machine speed. They can deny fundamental rights without a face, a name, or a reason. This article establishes the constitutional framework within which artificial intelligence systems may and may not be used in the governance of human lives.

Section 2 — Right to Know When AI Decided Your Fate

Every person has the right to know when an automated system, artificial intelligence system, or algorithmic decision-making tool was used to make or materially influence a significant decision about them. A significant decision includes any decision affecting liberty, employment, housing, healthcare, credit, insurance, education, immigration status, custody, parole, benefits eligibility, or any other matter of comparable consequence. The right to know includes: the fact that an automated system was used; the general nature of the factors it considered; the specific output it produced relevant to the person's case; and whether a human reviewed the output before the decision was made and what weight that review was given.

The right to human review of consequential AI decisions is a constitutional right. Any significant decision made primarily by an automated system without meaningful human review is not a valid exercise of governmental or private power over an individual. "Meaningful human review" requires that the reviewing human have the authority, the information, and the practical capacity to override the system's output — not merely to ratify it.

Section 3 — AI in Criminal Justice; Prohibition on Algorithmic Sentencing

Artificial intelligence systems and risk assessment tools may not be used as the primary basis for any decision about a person's liberty — including bail determinations, pretrial detention, sentencing recommendations, parole eligibility determinations, or supervision conditions. Risk scores, recidivism predictions, and danger assessments generated by algorithmic systems are inadmissible as the primary basis for any such decision and may be used only as one factor among many, with the judicial officer required to make an independent finding that does not simply defer to the score. A judge who sentences primarily on the basis of an algorithmic risk score without independent factual findings has not exercised the judicial function this Constitution requires.

Every person who is subject to a risk assessment tool in any criminal, civil, or immigration proceeding has the right to: a full explanation of the factors the tool considered; the weight assigned to each factor; the tool's documented accuracy rates disaggregated by race, sex, and age; and an opportunity to challenge the tool's output on its merits — not merely to challenge whether the tool was applied correctly, but to challenge whether the tool's underlying methodology is valid and unbiased. The burden of demonstrating validity and the absence of discriminatory effect rests on the party relying on the tool.

Section 4 — Government Use of AI; Standards and Accountability

Any artificial intelligence system used by any federal, state, or local government agency in connection with decisions affecting individuals must: be documented with sufficient specificity for public scrutiny; be subject to regular bias audits by independent parties with published results; be trained on data that does not encode historical discrimination; be tested for accuracy disaggregated by race, sex, age, disability, and national origin before deployment; and be subject to ongoing monitoring after deployment with the results made publicly available. Government agencies may not deploy AI systems that perform worse on accuracy, consistency, or fairness for any protected group than the baseline human performance they are replacing.

The government bears the burden of demonstrating that any AI system it deploys meets these requirements. A government agency that deploys an AI system without conducting required bias audits, or that continues to use a system after learning of discriminatory effects, has violated this Constitution. Individuals harmed by biased government AI systems have a private right of action for constitutional violations without prior exhaustion of administrative remedies.

Section 5 — AI-Generated Content and Democratic Integrity

Artificial intelligence-generated content — including synthetic audio, video, images, and text — used in any political advertisement, electoral communication, or content designed to influence voting behavior must be clearly and prominently labeled as AI-generated. The label must be displayed in a form that a reasonable person would notice and that cannot be obscured or minimized. No person may use AI-generated synthetic media to falsely depict any candidate, elected official, or public figure saying or doing something they did not say or do, in connection with any election, government proceeding, or public policy debate. The government may not use AI systems to generate or amplify political content without disclosure. No AI system may be used to impersonate a human being in political communication.

Section 6 — Autonomous Weapons and Lethal AI

No autonomous weapons system — any system capable of selecting and engaging human targets without a human decision for each individual engagement — may be deployed by the United States military or any agency of the United States government without specific authorization by Congress naming the system, the theater of operation, the targeting parameters, and the rules of engagement. The authorization to use military force required by Article 4, Section 8 applies to the deployment of autonomous weapons systems in any capacity where they may engage human targets. A president may not authorize the autonomous targeting of human beings by any system without congressional authorization.

No autonomous weapons system may be authorized to engage targets in any context — domestic or foreign — in a manner that would be unlawful if ordered by a human commander. The laws of war, including requirements of distinction, proportionality, and precaution, apply to autonomous systems. The United States shall not develop, deploy, or transfer autonomous weapons systems designed to make lethal decisions based solely on the characteristics of a class of persons — nationality, ethnicity, affiliation — rather than individual assessment of the specific threat posed by the specific individual.

The 72-hour emergency exception in Article 4, Section 8 does not apply to autonomous weapons systems capable of selecting and engaging human targets without individual human decisions for each engagement. No such system may be deployed under the emergency exception regardless of how imminent or sudden the triggering threat. In genuine sudden-attack situations, human-controlled weapons systems may be deployed under the 72-hour exception; autonomous lethal AI systems require specific congressional authorization in all circumstances, including emergencies, which Congress may provide through expedited procedures established for that purpose.

Section 7 — AI Concentration of Power; Existential Risk

No person, corporation, or government may deploy AI systems with the specific intent or predictable design effect of: (a) disabling the free functioning of democratic elections or the electoral system; (b) impairing the constitutional authority of the legislative or judicial branch; (c) preventing the public from accessing diverse information by eliminating competitive information distribution; or (d) positioning a single actor to exercise effective control over two or more of the following critical systems simultaneously: the national financial system, the electrical grid, water infrastructure, emergency communications, or military command systems. These prohibitions are judicially manageable: the Commission identifies specific deployments meeting these criteria and may seek judicial injunction. The development of AI systems that would enable any single actor to seize control of critical national infrastructure without democratic authorization is a threat to constitutional governance that Congress shall address by statute.

Congress shall establish an independent AI Safety and Governance Commission with authority to: evaluate the capabilities and risks of advanced AI systems before and during deployment; set mandatory safety standards for AI systems that pose potential catastrophic or irreversible risks; require transparency about training data, architecture, and capability evaluations for powerful AI systems; and coordinate with international bodies on global AI governance. The Commission shall have the same independence protections as the Federal Reserve Board and shall report simultaneously to the President and Congress.

[Implemented by CS-20 — AI Governance and Algorithmic Rights Act]

Section 1 — Congressional Authority

Congress shall establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization and shall prescribe by law the conditions of admission, residence, removal, and citizenship.

No executive officer, department, or agency may adopt a categorical policy of non-enforcement applying to a defined class of persons — meaning a policy that forecloses case-by-case enforcement determinations for that class as a matter of general practice — without express congressional authorization. This Section does not limit the ordinary exercise of case-by-case prosecutorial discretion, including a determination not to pursue a specific individual's removal based on that individual's particular circumstances, resource constraints, or enforcement priorities applied on a case-by-case basis; it limits only a categorical policy that functions as a substitute for legislation Congress has not enacted.

A categorical non-enforcement policy that meets the scale threshold of Section 4 of this Article is independently subject to that Section's congressional-approval and automatic-termination requirements, regardless of whether it satisfies this Section's authorization requirement.

Section 2 — Equal Application of the Laws

Federal immigration enforcement priorities, resource allocation, and the intensity of enforcement activity must be applied uniformly across jurisdictions; the federal government may not enforce immigration law more aggressively, or direct disproportionate enforcement resources, against a state or locality based on that jurisdiction's political affiliation, its officials' public statements, or its policy disagreement with federal immigration priorities.

This Section does not require any state or locality to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, and does not limit a state's authority under Article Six to decline enforcement assistance consistent with the anti-commandeering principle established there; this Section binds only the federal government's own uniform application of its own enforcement activity, not a state's independent choice about its own cooperation.

The federal government may not condition unrelated federal funding — including funding for transportation, infrastructure, healthcare, education, or disaster relief — on a state or locality's cooperation with immigration enforcement, consistent with the federal funding conditions standards established elsewhere in this Constitution.

Section 3 — Emergency Entry Restrictions

The President may temporarily restrict the entry of non-citizens into the United States, but only upon a specific, public finding that the restriction is necessary to address an armed invasion, an imminent foreign military attack, a specific and credible terrorist threat, a declared public health emergency, or another catastrophic threat to national security, identifying the specific threat and the specific basis for believing the restriction will address it.

An entry restriction under this Section expires automatically 90 days after issuance unless renewed by Congress; this 90-day limit is the specific emergency-powers limit applicable to entry restrictions, narrower than and superseding the general 180-day limit of Article Four, Section 4 for this specific category of executive action, in recognition of the severity of harm an erroneous or overbroad entry restriction can cause to families and lawful travelers.

An entry restriction under this Section may not apply to a person who already holds a valid visa, lawful permanent resident status, or other previously granted lawful status, and may not be used to remove or revoke the status of any person already lawfully present in the United States; it restricts only new entry, not the status of those already admitted. An entry restriction may not be based on religion as a categorical criterion, and is subject to the nondiscrimination standard established under Section 2 of this Article and Right 32 of this Constitution. No entry restriction under this Section may suspend the due process protections established under Article Seven, Section 3, for any person already within the jurisdiction of the United States.

Section 4 — Mass Enforcement Actions

Any executive action reasonably anticipated to affect 100,000 or more persons through deferred enforcement, temporary protected status, mass parole, suspension of removals, or mass removal operations requires congressional approval by joint resolution within 120 days of the action's announcement or initiation. Absent that approval, the action automatically terminates at the end of the 120-day period and may not be reissued in substantially the same form during that session of Congress without intervening legislative authorization.

This Section applies equally to an action that extends protection from removal and to an action that increases the scale or pace of removal, without regard to which produces the larger or smaller number of removals; this Section establishes a structural check on executive scale, not a judgment about the correct immigration policy outcome.

Section 5 — Immigration Oversight

Congress shall establish an Inspector General for immigration enforcement, with jurisdiction over every federal agency and component engaged in immigration enforcement, detention, or removal. The Immigration Inspector General is subject to the same appointment, removal, and judicial-review protections established for Inspectors General under Article Ten, Section 5 of this Constitution.

The Immigration Inspector General shall: audit enforcement activities for compliance with this Article and applicable law; investigate credible allegations of misconduct, excessive force, or civil rights violations by immigration enforcement personnel; conduct unannounced inspections of any detention facility holding persons under immigration authority; and publish a public report not less than once every calendar quarter detailing enforcement activity, detention conditions, and the disposition of any investigation opened during that period.

No officer of the executive branch may interfere with, delay, edit, or suppress an Immigration Inspector General report or investigation, consistent with the protections against retaliatory interference established for Inspectors General generally.

Section 6 — Civil Liberties in Enforcement

Immigration enforcement action against any person may not be based, in whole or in part, on that person's race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, political belief, or lawful exercise of speech, assembly, or association. This prohibition applies to the decision to investigate, stop, question, detain, arrest, or initiate removal proceedings against any person.

A pattern of enforcement activity disproportionately affecting a particular racial, ethnic, religious, or national-origin group, without an articulable basis tied to that specific enforcement action rather than the group's characteristics generally, is evidence of a violation of this Section.

Any person who alleges a violation of this Section has standing to seek declaratory and injunctive relief in federal district court, independent of and without regard to the person's immigration status or the outcome of any removal proceeding against them. A person's unlawful presence in the United States is not a defense to a claim under this Section, and is not grounds for dismissing a claim under this Section for lack of standing.

Section 7 — Officer Accountability

A federal officer who knowingly violates a right guaranteed by this Article is subject to removal from office, civil liability to the person harmed, and any criminal penalty Congress prescribes by law. Qualified immunity does not bar a civil action for a violation of this Article; the standard of liability is whether the officer's conduct violated this Article's plain text, not whether a prior court decision had already addressed materially identical facts.

Where the violation results in the wrongful death of a person in immigration custody, or serious bodily injury to a person in immigration custody, the standards, presumptions, and remedies established for custodial deaths and injuries elsewhere in this Constitution apply in full, including the abrogation of qualified immunity already established there; this Section's abrogation of qualified immunity is in addition to, and does not narrow, that existing protection.

Section 8 — Reservation of Powers

All authority over immigration, naturalization, admission, removal, and the enforcement of immigration law is delegated authority, granted to the executive branch only by Act of Congress or by explicit provision of this Constitution. Neither the President, nor any executive department or agency, possesses inherent constitutional authority over immigration independent of congressional delegation; where Congress has not authorized a specific executive action regarding immigration, the executive branch has no authority to take that action, regardless of any asserted foreign affairs, national security, or executive power rationale.

This Section does not limit the President's authority to conduct diplomatic relations, negotiate international agreements subject to their constitutionally required ratification or approval, or command the armed forces consistent with this Constitution's war powers framework; it limits only the assertion of unilateral authority to make, alter, or enforce immigration policy itself without congressional authorization.

Section 9 — Work Authorization

Congress shall establish a uniform system for verifying authorization to work in the United States. The system shall serve only to confirm work authorization and may not be used, accessed, or repurposed to locate, detain, or initiate removal proceedings against any person, nor for any general surveillance or law enforcement function. No worker may be criminally penalized for a failed verification; responsibility for unlawful employment rests with the employer. Every worker, regardless of immigration status, retains the full labor rights guaranteed under this Constitution, and no employer may use, report, or threaten to report a worker's immigration status in response to the worker's exercise of those rights.

Section 1 — The Congressional Regulatory Review Office

Congress shall establish a Congressional Regulatory Review Office as a nonpartisan analytical body serving both chambers, modeled on the Congressional Budget Office and the Government Accountability Office. The Office shall: conduct independent economic impact analysis of any proposed major rule; estimate compliance costs, benefits, and distributional effects; publish its findings publicly before any vote required under Section 2 of this Article; and respond to congressional or public petitions for review under Section 4 of this Article. The Office has no independent enforcement, rulemaking, or veto authority of its own — its function is exclusively analytical and advisory. The Director of the Office is appointed jointly by the leadership of both chambers for a term of four years and may be removed only by joint action of both chambers for cause. The Office's staff are nonpartisan civil servants hired on the basis of professional and technical qualification, consistent with the staffing model of the Congressional Budget Office.

Section 2 — Major Rule Pre-Approval

No major rule issued by any federal agency, department, or independent commission — including those whose structural independence is otherwise protected under this Constitution — may take effect unless approved by a joint resolution of Congress, signed by the President or enacted over a presidential veto, within 70 legislative days of the agency's submission of the rule and the Congressional Regulatory Review Office's accompanying economic impact analysis. A major rule is any proposed agency action, regulation, or guidance reasonably anticipated to: impose an annual cost on the economy of $50,000,000 or more; impose a major increase in costs or prices for consumers, industries, or government agencies; or have a significant adverse effect on competition, employment, productivity, or innovation. If Congress does not approve a major rule within 70 legislative days, the rule does not take effect and may not be reissued in substantially the same form during that session of Congress without intervening legislative authorization. This Section's requirement is in addition to, not a substitute for, any other rulemaking procedure otherwise required by law. Emergency rules necessary to address an imminent threat to public health, safety, or national security may take effect immediately upon issuance but expire automatically after 90 days unless approved under this Section.

Section 3 — Congressional Nullification

Congress may nullify any executive order, regulation, rule, waiver, guidance document, emergency declaration, or other administrative action having the force or practical effect of law through a concurrent resolution adopted by a majority of each House. A resolution under this Section does not require presentment to the President and is not subject to presidential veto. This nullification power applies to actions taken by any federal agency, department, or independent commission, including those whose structural independence is otherwise protected under this Constitution. A nullified action may not be reissued in substantially the same form without intervening legislative authorization. Emergency declarations expire automatically after 60 days unless affirmatively renewed by a joint resolution of Congress signed by the President or enacted over a presidential veto. No delegation of legislative or regulatory authority to any officer, agency, or commission may be construed to prevent Congress from exercising the power granted by this Section. This Section is an explicit and intentional departure from the bicameralism-and-presentment requirement that otherwise governs the enactment of law under this Constitution, adopted as a structural check on executive and administrative action; it does not affect the requirement of presentment for any other category of congressional action not specified here.

Section 4 — Citizen Referendum for Regulatory Review

A petition to hold a referendum under Article Eight may propose the question: whether Congress should hold a vote to nullify a specific executive order, rule, regulation, or administrative action under Section 3 of this Article. Such a petition follows the same petition, certification, and balloting procedures established under Article Eight and its implementing statute, except that the question put to voters is whether Congress should be required to vote, not whether the underlying action itself is enacted, modified, or repealed. The referendum passes in a state if a simple majority of valid ballots cast in that state vote yes. When the referendum passes in three-fourths of the states, Congress must hold a vote on a concurrent resolution to nullify the petitioned action under Section 3 of this Article within 30 legislative days of national certification. The Congressional Regulatory Review Office shall publish its independent economic impact analysis of the petitioned action before that vote is held. Failure of either chamber to hold the required vote within 30 legislative days is grounds for any registered voter in a state where the referendum passed to petition the United States District Court for the District of Columbia for a writ of mandamus compelling the vote. This Section creates an obligation to vote; it does not predetermine or compel the outcome of that vote.

Section 1 — The Prohibition on Domestic Military Force

The armed forces of the United States, the federalized National Guard, and any federal force of comparable character may not be used to conduct law enforcement against, surveil, detain, disperse, or apply force to the people of the United States within its borders. This prohibition is absolute except as narrowly provided in this Section.

The only exceptions. Federal military force may be directed inward only to repel an actual armed invasion by a foreign power, or to restore order in the face of an armed insurrection that the civil authorities and ordinary law enforcement are genuinely unable to control, and only after the President has made a specific, public, written finding identifying the actual armed threat and why civilian law enforcement is insufficient.

What is never an invasion or insurrection. None of the following is, by itself, an armed invasion or armed insurrection, and none may ever be the basis for domestic military deployment: a protest, demonstration, march, or assembly; a strike, work stoppage, boycott, or labor action; an act of civil disobedience; the presence, status, or movement of immigrants or any group defined by national origin; the expression of any political, religious, or ideological belief; ordinary crime, including organized crime, however serious, that civil law enforcement is capable of addressing; a natural disaster or public health emergency; or a state or locality's lawful disagreement with federal policy. A threat is an armed invasion or insurrection only where there is actual organized armed force that civilian authority genuinely cannot meet.

Automatic expiration. A domestic deployment under this Section expires automatically 10 days after it begins unless Congress, by affirmative vote, authorizes its continuation; it may not exceed 30 days in total even with authorization without a renewed congressional vote, and a court may order it ended at any time on a finding that this Section's conditions are not met. The deployment confers no law-enforcement, detention, or surveillance authority beyond the immediate suppression of the armed threat itself.

No obedience to an unlawful order. A member of the armed forces owes no obedience to an order to act against the people in violation of this Section. Following such an order is not a defense to liability, and issuing such an order is a violation of this Constitution for which the issuing official, including the President, is personally accountable. No member of the armed forces may be punished, discharged, or disadvantaged for refusing an order that violates this Section. Qualified immunity does not bar an action under this Section.

Section 2 — The Limitation on Standing Force and the Prohibition on Secret Police

The maintenance of the armed forces depends on the continuing consent of the people's representatives. No appropriation to raise or maintain the armed forces may run longer than two years; the armed forces may be funded only by an appropriation that Congress must affirmatively renew, and a permanent or self-renewing military appropriation is void. This guarantees that the existence of the military is reconsidered by each Congress and can never become independent of democratic consent.

No secret police. The federal government may not create, fund, or operate a secret police force, a political police force, or a domestic-intelligence force directed at the people of the United States on the basis of their political belief, religion, association, expression, or lawful activity. No federal agency may maintain files, watchlists, or dossiers on a person for the purpose of monitoring that person's lawful political, religious, or associational activity, nor may it infiltrate, disrupt, or surveil a group for engaging in lawful advocacy, protest, or association.

Identification and accountability of federal force. A federal officer exercising law-enforcement or detention authority against a person within the United States must be visibly identifiable by agency and by individual identifier, except where a specific, judicially authorized undercover operation requires otherwise. The deployment of masked, unidentified, or unmarked federal personnel to detain, question, or apply force to persons is prohibited; anonymity of state force against the people is a hallmark of the secret police this Section forbids.

Transparency. The existence, budget, and general function of every federal agency exercising domestic enforcement or intelligence authority must be public. A wholly secret agency, a secret budget for domestic enforcement, or a domestic enforcement program concealed from Congress and the public is prohibited; secrecy may attach to specific operations, sources, or methods where genuinely necessary, but never to the existence of the institution itself.

Section 3 — Protection of Judicial Independence

The judicial power of the United States extends to all cases arising under this Constitution, and Congress may not remove from the federal courts, or from the Supreme Court, the jurisdiction to hear and decide a claim that a law or government action violates a right or structural guarantee of this Constitution. Congress may regulate the courts' procedures, venue, and the orderly distribution of cases, but may not use its authority over jurisdiction to insulate a law or action from constitutional review, to dictate the outcome of a pending case, or to deny any class of persons access to judicial review of a violation of their rights.

No vacancy blockade. When a vacancy arises on the Supreme Court or any federal court, the Senate must consider and hold a final confirmation vote on a nominee within 120 days of the nomination. If the Senate fails to hold a final vote within that period, the nominee is deemed confirmed. The number of seats on any federal court is fixed by law; a vacancy does not reduce that number, and no branch may leave a seat unfilled to alter the court's balance or evade this Section.

No outcome dictation. Congress may not enact a law directing a particular court to decide a particular pending case in a particular way, nor reopen a final judgment by legislation; the resolution of a case under the law is the judicial power, not the legislative.

Section 4 — The Peaceful Transfer of Power

The transfer of power established at the stroke of noon under Article Four is absolute and self-executing. A person whose term of office has ended holds no power whatever, and any order, directive, command, pardon, or official act issued by such a person after their term has ended is void from the moment it is made and creates no authority and no obligation in anyone.

The duty runs to everyone. No member of the armed forces, no officer or employee of any agency, no law-enforcement officer, and no official of any kind owes any obedience to a person whose term has ended, regardless of that person's prior office, present claims, or assertion of any emergency. Obedience is owed only to the person who holds the office under this Constitution. A person who carries out the purported order of someone whose term has ended is personally liable for the act and may not raise the order as a defense; the lawful officeholder, the courts, and the people may treat any attempt to exercise power after the end of a term as a usurpation without legal effect.

No emergency may extend a term. No emergency, declared crisis, state of war, natural disaster, election dispute, or other circumstance whatsoever may postpone an election, extend a term of office, or delay the transfer of power. An election may not be cancelled or postponed by any executive or administrative act; only the people, through the amendment process, may alter the timing of an election or a term. A purported postponement of an election or extension of a term is void, and an official who attempts it forfeits their office immediately and is subject to removal and criminal penalty.

Resolution of genuine disputes. A genuine dispute over who has lawfully won an election is resolved exclusively through the judicial process established by this Constitution and concluded before the transfer date; it is never a basis for the incumbent to retain power. If a dispute is unresolved at the transfer moment, power does not remain with the incumbent — it passes according to the line of succession this Constitution establishes, to be exercised in an acting capacity until the dispute is lawfully resolved. Under no circumstance does an unresolved dispute extend the power of a person whose term has ended.

Section 5 — The Ministerial Duty to Certify Elections

The certification of an election result is a mandatory, non-discretionary act. An official charged with canvassing, certifying, or transmitting an election result has the duty to certify the result that the lawful count of valid votes produces, and has no discretion to refuse, delay, alter, or condition certification based on a disagreement with the outcome, a belief or allegation of fraud, or any reason other than a specific, adjudicated finding by a court of competent jurisdiction that the count itself is legally defective.

Allegations go to court, not to the certifier. An official who suspects or is told of fraud or irregularity may not withhold certification on that basis; the official certifies the result as counted and refers the allegation to the courts and prosecuting authorities, which alone may adjudicate it. A claim of irregularity is resolved by evidence before a court, never by the unilateral refusal of a certifying official, and never by a legislative body substituting its own preferred result for the count.

Refusal is removable and compellable. An official who refuses, delays, or conditions certification in violation of this Section may be compelled to certify by an order of mandamus issued on an emergency basis, forfeits their office, and is subject to criminal penalty. If an official refuses or is unable to certify, a court may order the certification entered, or designate another official to perform the ministerial act, so that no individual's refusal can prevent a lawfully counted result from being certified.

No substitution of the count. No official, board, or legislature may set aside the result produced by the lawful count of valid votes and substitute a different result, a different slate, or its own judgment of who should have won. The winner of an election is the person whom the valid votes elected, as determined by the count and any court correction of the count — and by no other process.

The count, the certification, and the transfer are one continuous guarantee. This Section, the certification timing of this Constitution, and the peaceful transfer of power under Section 4 of this Article together secure an unbroken chain from the casting of votes to the assumption of office, in which no official at any step holds discretion to substitute their will for the will of the voters.

Section 6 — The Priority of Human Needs in Public Spending

The guarantees of this Constitution that secure the basic needs of the people — including health care under Article Eleven, and the other rights and provisions this Constitution makes the affirmative obligation of the government — hold first claim on the revenue of the United States. These guarantees are funded before discretionary spending, and may not be reduced, suspended, or left unfunded on the ground of insufficient revenue while discretionary spending continues.

Scarcity may not be asserted selectively. The government may not plead insufficient funds to deny a guaranteed human need while funding discretionary military operations, enforcement expansions, or other discretionary programs at levels that would, if redirected, meet that need. A claim that a guaranteed provision cannot be funded is valid only if discretionary spending has first been reduced to meet it; the burden is on the government to show that the need cannot be met from discretionary funds before any guaranteed provision may be reduced.

The distinction between guaranteed and discretionary spending. Spending required to fulfill a right or affirmative guarantee of this Constitution is guaranteed spending. All other spending — including discretionary military spending above the level required for the genuine defense of the nation, and including the expansion of enforcement agencies — is discretionary and is subordinate in claim to guaranteed spending. The genuine defense of the nation against actual or imminent attack is not subordinated by this Section; what is subordinated is discretionary spending that exceeds that genuine need.

No constitutional crisis from honest shortfall. Where revenue is genuinely insufficient to meet all guaranteed provisions even after discretionary spending is exhausted, the government's obligation is to raise the revenue through the taxing power this Constitution provides, not to abandon the guarantee. A sustained failure to fund a guaranteed provision while the means to fund it exist — whether through available discretionary funds or through the exercise of the taxing power — is itself a violation of this Constitution.

Section 7 — Protection Against Foreign Government Influence

The government of the United States, and every official within it, answers to the people of the United States and to no foreign power. To preserve that loyalty:

No foreign-government money in American politics or government. No foreign government, foreign political party, foreign state-owned or state-controlled entity, or agent acting on their behalf, may directly or indirectly provide, promise, or fund any contribution, expenditure, gift, payment, thing of value, or benefit to or for the benefit of any candidate, officeholder, political organization, or campaign in the United States, at any level of government. This prohibition extends to money or benefits routed through intermediaries, and the routing of foreign-government funds through a domestic entity to evade this section is itself prohibited.

No personal foreign benefit to officials. No person holding office under the United States, or any state or local government, may accept any payment, gift, office, title, employment, or thing of value from a foreign government or its agents, for themselves or their family, during their service and for a defined period after, except as Congress may permit for ordinary diplomatic courtesy fully disclosed. An official may not act under the direction, control, or financial dependence of a foreign government; doing so is a betrayal of the public trust and grounds for removal.

Transparency of foreign-government influence. All influence exerted by or on behalf of a foreign government upon American officials or the American public — including lobbying, paid advocacy, funded media, and organized influence operations — must be registered and disclosed, so that the people may know when a message reaching them originates with a foreign power. This requirement applies to the foreign government and its paid agents; it does not reach, and may not be used to suppress, the political speech, advocacy, or association of United States citizens and residents acting on their own behalf, whatever cause they support, which remains fully protected.

No foreign control of the means of public information. A foreign government or foreign-government-controlled entity may not own or control the media outlets or communications platforms through which Americans inform themselves about their own government, though foreign investment and foreign journalism, disclosed as such, are not prohibited.

No binding the people's future commitments. No commitment of aid, funds, or military support to any foreign government binds a future Congress, which retains at all times the full authority to review, reduce, condition, or end any such commitment; no agreement and no foreign power may foreclose that authority, and any provision purporting to make such support permanent or unreviewable is void.

Section 8 — The National Guard, the Militia, and the Prohibition on Private Armies

Organized armed force in the United States belongs to the accountable institutions of the people. It is either lawful — authorized, identifiable, and subordinate to civil authority — or it is a prohibited private army. There is no third category, and the name a body gives itself does not change which it is. This Constitution distinguishes the National Guard, the militia, and the private paramilitary, and governs each.

The National Guard. The National Guard is a military reserve, organized within the branches of the armed forces, under military command and discipline. In ordinary service it is under the authority of the government of its state for the defense of that state and response to emergency. It may be called into the federal service of the United States as Congress provides, but when so federalized it is subject in full to the prohibition on domestic military force in Section 1 of this Article and to every safeguard of this Article; federalization confers no power to use the Guard against the people that the regular armed forces would not have. The Guard takes its orders through the military chain of command, never from any private person or self-appointed leader.

The militia. The militia is distinct from the National Guard: it is a body of the people, organized and regulated by a state or county, never federalized, and never part of the regular armed forces. Its standing purpose is the local defense of the community and the state, including against tyranny, and it acts only when lawfully called into service by the civil authority of the state or county; it may never activate itself, and no person or group may take up arms as a militia upon their own private judgment that the moment has come. The right of the people to organize and serve in a lawful militia is recognized, and a state may not arbitrarily or pretextually deny that status to those who meet the standards; but the militia exists only under the authority and regulation of the state, subordinate at all times to civil authority and to the safeguards of this Article, and it may never be turned against the people, against peaceful assembly or protest, or against any group on account of who they are or what they believe. A lawful militia and its members, acting as such, must be identifiable and may not be masked, anonymous, or concealed; must be armed only with personal small arms and individual equipment, and never with artillery, armor, military materiel, or the weapons of offensive war; and must meet the standards of accountability, training, and lawful conduct established by Constitutional Statute. The individual right to keep and bear arms secured elsewhere in this Constitution is separate from and unaffected by militia service, and neither limits the other.

The prohibition on private armies. Any organized armed body that is not the lawful armed forces, the National Guard, the law enforcement of an accountable government, or a lawful militia meeting the standards of this Article is a prohibited private paramilitary, whatever it calls itself. A group that organizes as an armed force without lawful authorization, that activates itself upon its own judgment, that masks or conceals its members, that stockpiles the materiel of war, that answers to a private leader rather than to civil authority, or that exists to intimidate, coerce, or use force against other people or against a government — is not a militia and holds no protection of this Constitution. Lawful militia status, once granted, may be suspended and revoked through the fast judicial process established by Constitutional Statute upon proof of such conduct, and a body whose status is revoked or that never held it operates wholly outside the law's protection.

Section 9 — The Duty to Execute the Laws; The Prohibition on Nullification

The Constitution gives the power to make and repeal laws to the Congress, and the power to execute them to the President. A President who refuses to enforce a law he cannot repeal seizes the power of repeal for himself, and rules by a power the Constitution denied to kings: the power to suspend the law. This the Constitution forbids.

The President, and every officer of the executive, shall faithfully execute and enforce the laws duly enacted by Congress, whether or not the President agrees with them. Neither the President nor any officer may suspend a law, dispense with its enforcement, or nullify it by declining to enforce it, in whole or against a class, whether by order, by policy, by the withholding of resources, or by the deliberate starving of the officers who enforce it.

This duty does not require the enforcement of every law to its maximum against every violation. The ordinary discretion of enforcement — the declining of a particular case on its facts, the setting of honest priorities among violations, the good-faith allocation of genuinely limited resources toward the most serious harms — remains proper, for that discretion enforces the law equitably; it does not erase it. What is forbidden is the abdication of the duty: the reduction of a law's enforcement to nothing, or so near to nothing that the law is repealed in fact though it stands in words, for a reason other than the honest and evenhanded administration of justice.

No appropriation made by Congress to enforce a law may be impounded, withheld, or redirected to defeat the law's enforcement. Money Congress commands to be spent enforcing the law shall be spent enforcing the law.

This section is enforceable. That the executive has declined to act does not place its nullification beyond the reach of the courts. (CS-31)

Section 1 — Disconnection That Endangers Life Is Prohibited

No utility, public or private, may disconnect electrical service to an occupied dwelling where disconnection would foreseeably endanger the health or life of any occupant. This protection applies without exception during extreme heat or cold, where an occupant depends on electrically powered medical equipment, and where an occupant is a child, elderly, seriously ill, or disabled. Nonpayment does not extinguish this right. A debt is collected as a debt, through the ordinary law of obligations — it is never collected by turning off the power to a house with a person inside it. A utility that disconnects in violation of this Section is liable to the occupant, and where death or serious injury results, the officers who authorized the practice are personally liable.

Section 2 — Affordability and Reliability

Essential electrical service shall be available at a cost not exceeding a percentage of household income established by Constitutional Statute, with subsidy below that threshold. The grid is a public trust. Congress shall maintain enforceable reliability standards, and a foreseeable, preventable failure of the electrical system is a violation of this right — not an act of God.

Section 3 — The Right to Generate Your Own Power

Every person has the right to produce, store, and use electrical energy for their own consumption, on property they own or lawfully occupy, by any means they choose. No State, county, municipality, zoning authority, building authority, homeowners association, or other body — public or private — may prohibit self-generation, mandate connection to a utility grid, mandate the purchase of a minimum quantity of utility service, or condition occupancy, permitting, or the lawful use of a dwelling upon being a utility customer.

Section 4 — The Only Permissible Regulation Is Safety

Self-generation may be regulated only to protect persons from physical harm, and only by standards that are objective, published, technically justified, and applied without regard to whether the person remains a utility customer. Legitimate regulation includes protection of utility workers from backfeed, fire and electrical code compliance, safe installation and containment of energy storage, ventilation and combustion safety, and structural adequacy.

A regulation is void where its purpose or its practical effect is to preserve utility revenue, discourage exit from the grid, or enforce an aesthetic preference. Standby charges, exit fees, minimum-purchase requirements, and permitting delays that function to make self-generation uneconomic are prohibited. Where a person demonstrates that a proposed system is safe and viable, approval is a ministerial duty — not a discretionary act and not a negotiation. The burden rests on the government or association to prove that a restriction is genuinely necessary to prevent physical harm. The burden never rests on the person to justify wanting to leave.

Section 5 — Tenants

A tenant may install and operate a self-contained generation or storage system that does not penetrate, alter, or attach permanently to the structure; does not tie into the building’s electrical system beyond a standard outlet; can be removed at the end of the tenancy without damage or trace; is confined to the space the tenant lawfully occupies; and complies with applicable safety, fire, and equipment standards. A landlord may not prohibit such a system, and may not penalize, surcharge, or decline to renew a tenancy because of it. The tenant shall give written notice before installation and shall carry any insurance the standard requires.

Any system that penetrates the building envelope, bears on the structure, alters the building’s electrical service, occupies common areas, or remains after the tenancy requires the owner’s written consent. The owner is under no obligation to grant it and is never obligated to pay for it. An owner may refuse consent for any reason relating to the building — structure, roof, warranty, insurance, fire safety, egress, historic protection, or the owner’s own plans for the property. An owner may not refuse consent, or restrict a self-contained system, for the purpose of preserving revenue from the resale of electricity to tenants. Where a landlord sells power to tenants — through submetering, a fee, or an amount folded into rent — the landlord holds a financial interest adverse to the tenant’s right, and a refusal made to protect that interest is void. A tenant who cannot practically self-generate retains the full protection of Sections 1 and 2.

Section 6 — The Grid Is Not Abandoned

The grid remains a shared asset. Its maintenance shall be funded so that neither those who leave nor those who remain bear a punitive share, and the cost of the network shall never be recovered in a manner designed to trap customers within it.

Section 1 — No Forced Labor

No person may be required to perform labor against their will — including as punishment for a crime. The abolition of slavery includes the abolition of involuntary servitude in all its forms. Prison sentences may include incarceration. They may not include compelled labor. The government has the authority to confine. It does not have the authority to compel work from the people it confines. Any system that coerces labor — through threat of punishment, denial of privileges, or adverse consequences for refusal — is forced labor and is prohibited by this Section.

[Implemented by CS-15, Fights 13 and 13A — voluntariness and compensation standards, government ownership of detention infrastructure, oversight access, and enforcement.]

Section 2 — Voluntary Prison Labor

Incarceration forbids compelled work, not all work. An incarcerated person may choose to work; that choice must be voluntary under the standard set in Section 1, and the work compensated at no less than the applicable minimum wage, paid to the worker. Any arrangement that penalizes refusal is compelled labor, void under Rights 30 and 31.

[Implemented by CS-15, Fight 13 — compensation standards and a private right of action for twice the wages owed.]

Section 3 — The Right to Communicate While Incarcerated

Every incarcerated person has the right to free, unlimited written communication with their family members, their support community — including close friends, religious advisors, mentors, and advocates — and their verified legal counsel. No prison system may charge for this communication, limit it as a disciplinary measure, or monitor communication with legal counsel. Incarceration is a deprivation of physical freedom — it is not a deprivation of the right to maintain relationships with family and community or to consult with an attorney. These connections are fundamental to human dignity, to rehabilitation, and to a just legal process.

[Implemented by CS-15, Fight 6 — free and unlimited legal and family correspondence, privileged legal calls, rate caps with no kickbacks, and daily access minimums.]

Section 4 — The Duty of Care for Those in Custody

Every person held in government custody — in any prison, jail, detention center, or other facility operated by or under the authority of any government entity — is owed a constitutional duty of care by the government that holds them. That duty includes protection from violence by other inmates and by staff; adequate medical care; adequate nutrition; and conditions of confinement that do not themselves constitute cruel or unusual punishment. Death in government custody triggers automatic civil liability of the custodial institution, with the burden on the government to demonstrate the death was not the result of negligence or deliberate indifference.

[Implemented by CS-15, Fight 4 — in-custody death and serious-injury liability, burden on the government, qualified-immunity abrogation, and pattern-and-practice enforcement.]

Section 5 — Freedom from Detention for Profit or Quota

No person may be deprived of liberty to fill a quota, to meet a numerical target, or to generate profit. The power to detain a human being exists to serve justice and public safety, and for no other purpose; it may never be placed in the service of a budget to be spent, a bed to be filled, or a revenue to be earned.

No law, contract, appropriation, or policy may require, guarantee, or reward the detention of any minimum number of people, or make the detention of a person more profitable than their liberty. No person's confinement may be prolonged, and no person may be confined, because a facility must be kept full, a contractual minimum must be met, or a payment depends upon it. Every deprivation of liberty must rest on an individualized, lawful justification particular to the person detained; a quota, a financial incentive, or a contractual target is never such a justification, and any detention resting on one is void.

[Implemented by CS-15 — Rights Enforcement and Democratic Participation Act, Fight 24.]

Section 1 — Real Evidence, Not Bare Assertion

Real evidence, not bare assertion. Involuntary detention or treatment requires specific, articulable evidence that the person, as a result of a genuine condition, presents a serious danger to themselves or to others, or is genuinely unable to provide for their own basic survival. The mere belief, opinion, or assertion of an official, a family member, or an institution — unsupported by such evidence — is never sufficient. A person's disagreement with the assessment, or refusal of voluntary treatment, may not by itself be treated as evidence of the condition that would justify detaining them.

Section 2 — An Independent Clinician, Promptly

A real and independent clinician, promptly. No person may be held on mental-health grounds beyond a brief, defined emergency period without examination by a qualified mental-health professional who is independent of, and is not, the person ordering or requesting the detention. An officer, official, or private party may initiate an emergency hold only to bring a person promptly before such a professional — never to effect or certify the detention upon their own judgment.

Section 3 — A Neutral Judge, Promptly

A neutral judge, promptly. Any detention or involuntary treatment extending beyond the brief emergency period requires a hearing before a neutral judge, at which the person has the right to be present, to be represented by counsel provided at public expense if they cannot afford it, to see and challenge the evidence against them, and to present evidence of their own. The government bears the burden of proving the grounds for detention by clear and convincing evidence, and the deprivation of a person's liberty on these grounds is a judicial act, never a purely administrative or private one.

Section 4 — The Least Restrictive Means

The least restrictive means, for no longer than the grounds persist. Detention or involuntary treatment is permissible only where no less restrictive alternative would meet the genuine need, only to the extent necessary, and only for so long as the grounds genuinely persist — subject to the ongoing-review protections established elsewhere in this Constitution, including periodic adversarial review at which the government again bears the burden.

Section 5 — Never a Tool of Control

Never a tool of control. Mental-health detention may never be used to punish, silence, isolate, or control a person for their beliefs, speech, identity, nonconformity, or mere inconvenience to another, and the authority to initiate it may never be delegated to any person to exercise against those they simply deem unwell. A determination of incapacity must rest on the person's demonstrated inability to function, never on the bare conclusion of an authority that the person cannot recognize their own condition.

Section 1 — Sole-Owned Homes

Sole-owned homes. For a detached house, a duplex, a townhouse, a rowhouse, or any dwelling whose owner solely owns its exterior walls and roof, no homeowners association, covenant, or deed restriction may control the exterior, appearance, landscaping, or lawful use of the home or its lot — including paint, materials, flags, signs, religious or political displays, solar panels, clotheslines, native or drought-tolerant landscaping, lawful vehicles, or whom the owner houses. Authority over such a home's exterior belongs to the owner alone, subject only to generally applicable law.

Section 2 — Genuinely Shared Structures

Genuinely shared structures. For a condominium, cooperative, or attached multi-unit building whose exterior walls, façade, roof, or balconies are structurally shared, an association may govern those shared and common elements, because one owner's use of a shared surface affects the others. Such an association may not reach the interior of any unit, except to access shared plumbing, electrical, structural, or similar systems for bona-fide maintenance, on reasonable notice.

Section 3 — Shared Physical Infrastructure

Shared physical infrastructure. Where owners of otherwise sole-owned homes genuinely share physical infrastructure — a private road, a common well, a shared septic or stormwater system — an association may exist for the sole purpose of maintaining that infrastructure and may levy only proportionate charges for it. It may exercise no authority over the appearance, use, or conduct of any home or owner.

Section 4 — Powers No Private Association May Hold

Powers no private association may hold. No such association may, over any person: foreclose upon, force the sale of, or evict any person from a primary residence for unpaid dues, fines, or assessments; place a lien on a primary residence that permits its loss, an unpaid debt surviving instead as an ordinary obligation satisfied upon voluntary sale; restrict speech, religious exercise, political activity, or the display of a flag; impose any fine without written notice, a stated rule, a fair hearing before a neutral decision-maker, and proportionality between the fine and the violation; bind any person who did not knowingly and voluntarily consent in writing; or enforce any rule selectively to target a disfavored person. Every such association shall keep open books, elect its board by its members, and answer to those members.

Section 1 — The Only Permissible Limit

The freedoms of speech and press protect expression, opinion, and viewpoint without exception; there is no idea so false, offensive, or dangerous that government may punish it as such. These freedoms do not, however, shield a statement of fact made with knowledge of its falsity, or with reckless disregard for whether it is true, that causes demonstrable harm to an identifiable person. Against such a statement — and only such a statement — the government, and any person so injured, may investigate and seek redress, proven in every case by clear and convincing evidence before an independent court. Government may also compel, through transparent and generally applicable law, the disclosure of who is speaking, who is funding the speech, and whether content has been manufactured or manipulated.

Section 2 — What No Government May Do

No government, court, or official may ever decide which opinions or viewpoints are legitimate; may punish a good-faith error, a matter of opinion, satire, or parody; may treat the correction of falsehood as license to suppress dissent; or may act against speech merely because it is unwelcome, unpopular, or embarrassing to those in power. The remedy for a lie is proof of the truth and redress to the person harmed — never the silencing of a viewpoint, and never the judgment of a government that it alone knows what is true.

Section 1 — What an Organization Is, and Is Not

An organization — a business, a company, a corporation, a partnership, a union, a charity, a church, a club, or any group of people acting under a common name — is created by people to do together what they cannot do alone. It is a creature of law: the people, through their government, bring it into being and set the terms of its existence.

An organization is not a human being. It holds none of the human rights this Constitution guarantees to persons; it cannot believe, vote, marry, or be imprisoned. But it is not without rights. It holds the rights an organization needs to exist, to function, and to be treated fairly by its government. Those rights are real, and they are enforceable in court.

They are also bounded. An organization has the right to operate, but never the right to rule; the right to prosper, but never the right to buy power; the right to act, but never the right to override the rights this Constitution and its Statutes guarantee to human beings. Every right in this Article is subordinate to the rights of people. Where the interest of an organization and the right of a human being conflict, the human being prevails.

Section 2 — The Capacities Every Organization Holds

No government may deny a lawful organization the basic capacities it needs to exist and function: to exist as a single legal entity, distinct from its members, under its own name; to make and enforce contracts, and to be held to them; to own, hold, use, and transfer property; to sue in its own name, and to be sued; to govern its own internal affairs — to adopt its rules, choose its officers, and admit and remove its members — free of government interference in matters that harm no one and deny no person their rights; to continue in existence beyond the lives or departure of its members; to combine with, reorganize, or separate from other organizations, and to wind itself down; and to keep its legitimate confidences, its trade secrets and its privileged legal communications. These capacities are granted by law and defensible at law; an organization may go to court to protect them.

Section 3 — Fair Treatment by Its Government

A government of laws does not treat even an artificial entity arbitrarily. No organization may be deprived of its property or its existence except by fair process of law; no government may single out a particular organization for punishment by name, nor treat like organizations unlike, without a reason the law recognizes; an organization’s premises, records, and communications are protected against unreasonable search and seizure, subject always to the lawful inspection of activities the public legitimately regulates; and in any proceeding against it, an organization is entitled to the fair-trial protections the law provides, including trial by jury in civil matters and protection against being tried twice for the same offense.

Regulation is not a taking. If a government takes an organization’s property for public use, it shall pay for what it takes. But an organization has no right to payment merely because a law reduces its profit, its value, or its convenience.

Section 4 — Speech, Press, Worship, and Association: Protected as Activities, Not as Weapons

People do not surrender their rights by joining together, and a government may not suppress a protected activity by striking at the organization through which people carry it out. A government may not censor, license, impose prior restraint upon, or retaliate against the press — or any organization engaged in publishing, reporting, art, or expression — because of the content of what it communicates; this protects the act of journalism and expression itself, and is not a right the outlet holds against the people, but a limit the people place on their government. A government may not forbid people from associating, nor compel an organization to hand the government its members or supporters, except as narrowly necessary to prevent a concrete and serious harm. And a government may not intrude into the internal religious life of a house of worship — its worship, its doctrine, or its choice of its own clergy — in any matter that harms no one and denies no person the rights this Constitution guarantees.

These protections shield the activity — expression, worship, association — from government power. They are not a license to escape the laws that protect other people, and they carry no right to spend money to influence who governs, as Section 6 provides.

Section 5 — Limited Liability, Without a Hiding Place

The law may shield the members, owners, and investors of an organization from personal liability for the organization’s ordinary debts. This is what lets ordinary people start and join a venture without risking everything they own, and it is preserved.

But the shield is not a hiding place. It does not protect any person or organization from responsibility for fraud, for the deliberate evasion of law, or for harm the organization causes to the rights this Constitution or its Statutes guarantee. In those cases the law shall reach through the organization to the human beings who directed the wrong. An organization may protect its officers from the cost of honest mistakes; it may never shield them from the consequences of violating the rights of others.

Section 6 — What No Organization May Do

An organization exists to serve the people who form it and the public that charters it. It is never entitled to convert its wealth or its size into power over the government, or over other people. No organization of any kind holds any right:

To decide who governs. No organization may spend money or deploy its resources to elect, defeat, or reward a candidate for public office, or to enact, defeat, or purchase legislation. It has no right of campaign speech, campaign finance, or electioneering. The people within it remain free to speak, give, and organize as individuals — but those individual rights do not pass to, expand through, or pool within the organization. An organization may not be used as a vehicle to do together what the people within it may not lawfully do themselves.

To capture its regulators. No organization has a right to lobby that carries immunity for doing so, to write the rules that govern it, or to place its own people in charge of its oversight. It may petition its government only openly, on the public record, and on equal terms with every other petitioner.

To escape the people’s rights behind a claim of its own. No organization may invoke religion, conscience, speech, property, or any right or capacity in this Article to exempt itself from a law protecting the constitutional or statutory rights of human beings — including their rights to fair and equal treatment, safe work, honest dealing, privacy, health, and a livable environment. The rights of people are not a cost an organization is entitled to avoid.

To place itself above regulation. No organization has a right to be unregulated, to withhold from the public truthful information the public is owed, or to treat a lawful duty of disclosure as an infringement of its “speech.”

To grow into dominance. No organization has a right to a monopoly, to market power, or to combine with others in order to obtain it. Combination is a privilege the people may grant, condition, or forbid in order to prevent the concentration of economic power.

Section 7 — One Standard, Not a Race

The rules that hold an organization accountable belong to the people who charter it — all of them — not to whichever state offers the most permissive terms. No organization may shop among jurisdictions for the weakest oversight and then carry that weakness across the country. There shall be a single national floor of accountability for organizations that operate across state lines — a minimum standard of honest governance, fair dealing, and public disclosure beneath which no organization may fall, whatever its place of chartering. A state remains free to charter organizations and to require more of them than the national floor requires; a state may never require less, and no organization may use its choice of chartering jurisdiction, or its relocation from one to another, to fall beneath the national floor or to escape the rights this Constitution and its Statutes guarantee. The governance of an organization that operates nationally is subject to that national floor regardless of the state in which it is chartered.

The specific standards of the floor — and their revision as new forms of organization arise — shall be set and kept current by Constitutional Statute, so that the principle endures while its mechanics keep pace with the times.

Section 8 — Rights Belong to People

Nothing in this Article diminishes the rights of any human being. The people within an organization — its workers, its owners, its members, its congregants — keep every right this Constitution guarantees them, and may exercise those rights fully, alone and together. What this Article withholds, it withholds only from the organizational form itself, and only where that form would otherwise become a means of escaping accountability or ruling those it was created to serve.

An organization may sue in its own name to protect its lawful interests, and may be sued by any person it has wronged; it has standing to enforce the capacities and protections of this Article, and any person whose rights an organization infringes has standing to hold that organization to account. An organization is subject to civil liability for the harms it causes, and may be prosecuted and punished for crimes committed in its name, on its behalf, or through its operations — by the sanctions appropriate to an entity, including fines, forfeiture, and dissolution. That an act was taken by or through an organization is never, in itself, a defense: the organization answers for the act, and the human beings who directed it remain personally answerable to the full extent of the law. Neither may hide behind the other.

Section 1 — No One Certifies Their Own Safety

The power to certify that a vehicle, aircraft, vessel, railcar, pipeline, or any transportation product or system is safe for the public is a public trust. It may never be delegated to the person who designs, builds, operates, or profits from the thing being certified. A maker may test its own product and must stand behind it; it may never be the authority that pronounces its own product safe for the people who will ride in it, fly in it, live beside it, or depend upon it.

Section 2 — The Independent Determination

Every safety-critical certification rests with a public authority that employs its own qualified technical staff, competent to examine the work and to reach its own judgment. Where specialized testing can be performed only by the maker, the public authority independently reviews that testing, retests whatever it judges necessary, and bears sole and final responsibility for the determination. The authority’s finding may rest on the evidence and on nothing else — not on the maker’s schedule, its commercial pressure, or its standing.

Section 3 — The Duty and the Right to Halt

Any engineer, inspector, or official with a reasonable basis to believe that a safety-critical defect exists has both the right and the duty to halt the certification or operation at issue until the question is resolved. No person may be dismissed, demoted, reassigned, silenced, or retaliated against in any form for raising a safety concern in good faith or for exercising this duty. Retaliation against such a person is a federal felony, and the one who suffers it is entitled to full reinstatement, restoration, and damages. A culture that punishes the raising of safety concerns is itself a defect this Constitution forbids.

Section 4 — Fees May Fund, but Never Steer

Fees, charges, or assessments paid by a regulated maker or operator may be used to fund the safety authority, but may never condition, accelerate, soften, or influence a safety finding. No certification may be purchased, expedited for payment, or shaped by the financial interest of the party seeking it. A determination shown to have been influenced by the interest of the fee-payer rather than by the evidence is void, and the officials who permitted it are personally accountable.

Section 5 — The Integrity of Public Infrastructure

The roads, bridges, transit systems, ports, waterways, and air-traffic systems on which public life depends shall be maintained to published safety standards, and their inspection records are public. Deferred maintenance that creates a known and serious danger to the public is a breach of the government’s duty, not a budgetary convenience; where danger is known, the duty to warn and to remedy is immediate. The public’s right to know the true condition of the infrastructure it relies upon may never be subordinated to the reputation of any agency or contractor.

Section 1 — Benefits Earned, Held in Trust

The benefits earned through military service — disability compensation, pension, health care, education, home and burial benefits, and the benefits owed to the families and survivors of those who served — are earned by service and sacrifice. They are a debt the nation has already incurred, held in trust for those who served; they are not a gratuity the government may withdraw, ration, or trade away when it finds them inconvenient. The nation that asks a person to risk everything in its defense is bound by what it promised in return.

Section 2 — No Diversion to Private Profit

The funds, facilities, and capacity dedicated to the care of those who served may not be diverted to private profit except where private delivery is shown, on published and independent evidence, to meet or exceed public delivery in quality, access, timeliness, and cost. The burden of that showing rests on those who propose the diversion, and it must be met before, not after, the care of veterans is placed in private hands. A veteran’s right to care may never be reduced, delayed, or degraded in order to create a market in it, and no entity may profit by denying, delaying, or diminishing the care the nation owes.

Section 3 — No Toll on an Earned Benefit

No person may charge a veteran a fee to obtain, claim, advise upon, or expedite a benefit the veteran has already earned, beyond the accredited and fee-capped representation the law permits. Free accredited assistance shall remain available to every veteran, and a fee charged in violation of this Section is void and recoverable. The nation does not sell back to those who served what their service has already bought.

Section 4 — Decided in Time

A benefit owed but endlessly delayed is a benefit denied. Claims for the benefits this Article protects shall be decided within a reasonable time set by law, and a backlog that leaves those who served without the care or support they are owed is itself a harm the government is bound to remedy, not a condition it may tolerate. Timeliness is part of the debt.

Section 1 — Severability

Every provision of this Constitution is severable from every other. If any provision is found unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, all other provisions remain in full force and effect. No court may use the invalidity of one provision as grounds for declaring any other provision unenforceable, unless the invalid provision is so integral to the dependent provision that the dependent provision cannot function independently and the drafters clearly intended the provisions to stand or fall together. The burden of demonstrating non-severability rests on the party asserting it and must be met by clear and convincing evidence.

Section 2 — Adoption and the Authority of the People

This Constitution derives its authority from the People of the United States, in whom all sovereign power resides. That authority is original and inherent; it does not depend upon the permission of any prior framework of government, including the Constitution this document replaces. As the framers of 1787 replaced the Articles of Confederation through a convention and ratification of their own design, without the approval the Articles required, so the People retain the same authority to ordain a new fundamental law when the established order no longer secures the purposes for which government exists.

Two paths to ratification. This Constitution may be adopted by either of two paths, and the validity of its adoption does not depend on which is used. First, through the amendment process of the prior Constitution: by a convention called on the application of two-thirds of the States and ratification by three-fourths — thirty-eight — of the States. Second, where that process is obstructed, denied, or held inapplicable to a comprehensive revision, through direct ratification by the People: by conventions or referenda in the several States, ratified by three-fourths of the States measured by the same standard, with each State's ratification expressing the sovereign consent of its people. The People's direct ratification is a sufficient and independent source of this Constitution's authority; no court may hold this Constitution void for having been adopted by the People directly rather than through the prior framework's machinery, for the authority to adopt a constitution belongs to the People and not to the government the prior constitution created.

Certification of ratification. The certification that a State has ratified this Constitution, and that the threshold of thirty-eight States has been reached, is a ministerial act subject to the same standards established in Article Twenty-Five, Section 5. A State's ratification is certified by the authority that conducted its convention or referendum, on the basis of the recorded vote, without discretion to refuse or alter a result the vote produced. The count of ratifying States, and the declaration that the thirty-eighth has ratified, is performed by a Ratification Canvassing Board composed of the chief election officer or equivalent officer of each ratifying State, which certifies the aggregate on the basis of the States' own certified results and has no discretion to disregard a State's valid ratification or to count an invalid one. A dispute over whether a particular State has validly ratified is resolved exclusively by the judicial process, on an expedited basis, and never by the unilateral refusal of any certifying officer or by any body substituting its judgment for the recorded vote. No official at any step holds discretion to substitute their will for the expressed consent of the People, consistent with Article Twenty-Five, Section 5.

The threshold is the same. By either path, this Constitution takes effect upon ratification by thirty-eight States. Ratification by fewer States binds only those States that have ratified, as to matters within their own authority, and does not bring this Constitution into force as the supreme law until the thirty-eighth State ratifies.

Continuity of governance through the transition. To prevent any vacancy of lawful authority, the transfer from the prior constitutional order to this one is continuous and without gap. Upon ratification: every person holding federal office under the prior Constitution continues to hold that office and to exercise its lawful powers under this Constitution until a successor is selected or the office is reconstituted under this Constitution; all existing federal law remains in force except where it conflicts with this Constitution, in which case this Constitution controls and the conflicting law is superseded as provided in the Constitutional Transition Act; all pending obligations, debts, treaties, and proceedings of the United States continue undisturbed; and the ordinary functions of government — the courts, the armed forces, the payment of obligations, the delivery of services — continue without interruption. No person may invoke the transition to claim that the government has ceased to exist, to refuse a lawful obligation, or to seize power outside the processes this Constitution establishes. The safeguards of Article Twenty-Five against the seizure of power apply in full from the moment of ratification.

No dual claimant. Upon ratification by the thirty-eighth State, this Constitution is the single supreme law of the United States, and the prior Constitution is superseded in its entirety. There is no interval of competing constitutions and no lawful claimant to authority under the superseded framework. An attempt to govern under the authority of the superseded Constitution after ratification is without legal effect and is subject to the safeguards of Article Twenty-Five.

Section 3 — Effective Date and Transition

This Constitution takes effect upon ratification as provided in Section 2 of this Article (Adoption and the Authority of the People). As to cases pending on the effective date: the more protective of this Constitution's provisions and the prior constitutional standard applies to any issue not yet finally adjudicated. No final judgment entered before ratification is retroactively disturbed. As to currently serving officials: congressional term limits count service beginning from the date of ratification; pre-ratification service does not count toward the limit. Presidential term limits apply from ratification with existing terms credited. Supreme Court Justices serving on the effective date may elect to transition to the 18-year active term structure or remain under their prior appointment terms; no Justice is compelled to change status. All other transition questions are governed by the Constitutional Transition Act, which takes precedence over any conflict with prior federal law during the transition period.

Section 4 — Interpretation

This Constitution is a living document, interpreted in light of its text, its structural principles, its underlying values, and the evolving understanding of human dignity, democratic governance, and the rights of persons. Where the text is specific, the specific language controls. Where the text establishes principles, courts apply those principles to circumstances the drafters did not anticipate, consistent with the document's values and purposes. No provision of this Constitution is to be interpreted so narrowly as to drain it of its intended protective effect, nor so broadly as to usurp the authority reserved to the legislative process.

The burden of justifying any government action that restricts, qualifies, or limits a right enumerated in Article Two of this Constitution rests on the government. The person asserting a right bears no burden to prove entitlement to it. This allocation of burden applies in all judicial, administrative, and legislative proceedings in which an enumerated right is at stake. Ambiguity in constitutional text is resolved in favor of the individual against the government; clarity in constitutional text is enforced as written regardless of the government's preferred interpretation.