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C00002 00002	consti[w82,jmc]		A new constitution for the U.S.
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consti[w82,jmc]		A new constitution for the U.S.

	The following are some of the goals:

1. Re-establish more or less literal interpretation and reduce or
eliminate judge made law.

2. Get better officials and legislators

3. Reduce procedural problems and permit decisions of hypothetical questions.

4. Allow smooth use of computer technology and AI as it becomes available.

5. Improve the quality of controversy.

6. Give the voters better control of the Government.

7. Preserve as much continuity and precedent as the reforms permit.

8. Preserve the diversity of state and local governments.

	Here are some ideas:

1. As with the present constitution, Government is divided into legislative,
executive and judicial parts.

2. It would be good if the president and vice-president could be chosen
by an electoral college.  This means that the electoral college looks
for the best man (who might be a woman), and the electors aren't committed
to an individual in advance.  In companies, it often happens that the
board of directors goes outside for a president, and the new president
is sometimes a person previously unknown to any member.  Therefore, it
can happen, but it is much harder to choose a chief executive for a
country that way.  The job is the focus of too much ambition.

3. It would be good if the legislators weren't always fighting for re-election.
Being a Congressman just isn't a very attractive job, and we're lucky that
they are as patriotic as they are on the average.  Under the proposed new
constitution, being a legislator will be a better job than it is now.

4. The legislature is based on delegatable votes.  Every citizen has
a right to vote on every bill.  However, he may delegate his vote to
another person, and a person may re-delegate votes delegated to him.
A delegated vote is controlled by the person to whom it is delegated,
but it may be re-delegated at any time or cast on a particular issue
by a person lower in the delegation chain.  Thus if I have an opinion
on a specific bill, and do it during the 24 hour vote on the bill, I
can cast my own ballot, and the person to whom I normally delegate
my votes finds himself casting one fewer vote (or less than that if
I had several delegated to me).

5. When a person has 500,000 votes delegated to him, he acquires the
title of Congressman, gets a salary and office facilities in
the Capitol) and is expected to spend his time at legislative
activities.  He keeps the title as long as the number of votes
delegated to him remains above 250,000, so his position is more
stable than that of a present Congressman.  Of course, the above
numbers would lead to a much smaller legislature than we have now.
I suspect this would be good, but thesize of Congress is not a
fundamental feature of the plan and maybe it could be a matter of
law within a range rather than a constitutional matter.

6. The initiation of bills requires a certain number of votes, and
there has to be a parliamentary procedure to focus the issues.  It
may require faster action than one day turn around.  The best
parliamentary procedure requires study.

7. There certainly needs to be a criminal and civil judiciary which
might be separated.  Probably there should be constitutional
judiciary also.  At present these are all the same courts, but there
might be some advantage in separating them.  In any case, the
constitutional judiciary needs to observer greater restraint than
does the present judiciary.  This might be accomplished by making
consitutional innovation a grounds for impeachment but requiring
some large fraction of the legislative votes, say 3/4 and perhaps
requiring some time, say two votes six months apart unless a 9/10
vote is achieved.