United Cities/Constitution

The Prime Directive of the United Cities

The United Cities exists for the purpose of building a stronger MRT community through large, cooperative projects; fostering good relations among towns and cities across the server; engaging in good-natured role-play; and boldly going where no Metropolitan Planning Organization has gone before.

Article I

Section 1

The United Cities shall be established as a Metropolitan Planning Organization on the Minecart Rapid Transit server. The UC shall be allowed to act in any location within the MRT.

Section 2

Players who own a town or city on the MRT server in the New World shall be eligible to join the United Cities to represent said town. Players who own multiple towns may not represent each town individually; they must either select a singular town to represent or represent an overarching entity that controls all of the towns.

There shall be two tiers of membership for players within the United Cities. Full members must own a town that is at the Councillor rank or higher. For players who own multiple towns, the rank of the highest ranked town that the player owns shall be the rank that is applied to said player. Full members shall be eligible to participate in the General Assembly as well as hold Officer positions.

Observers are ineligible to be an Officer as well as participate in the General Assembly. Any member of the MRT server that owns a town, even those who do not own a town that is at the Councillor rank or higher, may be an Observer. Players who own a town that is at the Councillor rank or higher may still freely choose to be an Observer instead of being a full member.

A table of members of the United Cities shall be maintained on the wikipage of the United Cities, with the table containing at least the player’s name, town, and membership type. Players may join the United Cities by adding their name and town to the list as well as whether they are a Full member or Observer. They may withdraw from the United Cities by removing their name and town from the list. This process must be done by the town owner - it cannot be done by another player on the town owner’s behalf.

Section 3

• Members of the United Cities shall be allowed to express any political stance, opinion, or idea of any kind.
• Players shall not be discriminated against based on country of origin or country of residence, political party, race, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or age.
• Players that are eligible to become a member of the United Cities shall be allowed to join at any time. Members of the United Cities are allowed to freely leave without restriction.
• No player shall be forced to pay membership dues or any other monetary fee to the United Cities without their consent.
• Members of the United Cities may engage in any political activity, including campaigning, resolution proposals, and project proposals.
• Members of the United Cities are allowed to freely vote on resolutions and in elections without penalties based on their vote.
• Players shall be allowed to be free from harassment, and shall have the right to be in a welcoming environment.
• Full members of the United Cities may register for any Officer position that they are eligible to become provided that they register before the deadline for that election.
• Members of the United Cities are allowed to freely create and/or join other Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) without penalty. Players may not have membership denied to them based solely on creation of or membership in another MPO.
• Players shall be allowed to report any perceived problems with the functioning or structure of the United Cities to the MRT Staff and/or United Cities Officers.
• The United Cities may not take any action to abridge any of the rights enumerated in this section, obstruct the ability of players to exercise these rights, or penalize any players for exercising these rights, unless otherwise provided for in this Constitution.
• These rights shall not be used as justification for any action that threatens the well-being of any person, violates the MRT Rules, or is extremely disruptive to the functioning of the United Cities.
• This section shall not be construed to deny the General Assembly the right to amend these rights through amendments to the Constitution.

Section 4

If the ownership of a single city, being an independent member state of the United Cities, or a member state consisting of multiple cities, is transferred to another player, the following procedure must occur:

a) If the transferred state is transferred to a player who does not represent a member state in the United Cities, the transferred state shall remain a member state with its new mayor listed as its representative.

b) If the transferred state is transferred to a player who represents a full member of the United Cities, the transferred state is to be removed as a member state, and shall be considered under the jurisdiction of the existing member state, unless the mayor decides to change which state he or she represents.

c) If the transferred state is transferred to a player who represents an Observer, the transferred state shall be considered to be under the jurisdiction of the existing Observer State, and is to be removed as a member state. If the transferred state meets the requirements for full membership, the Observer state may be upgraded to full membership status, if the mayor chooses to do so.

If the ownership of one or more constituent cities of a member state consisting of multiple cities is transferred to another player, the following procedure must occur:

a) If the transferred constituent city is transferred to a player who does not represent a member state in the United Cities, the transferred constituent city shall become an independent member state with its new mayor listed as its representative.

b) If the transferred constituent city is transferred to a player who represents a full member of the United Cities, the transferred constituent city is to be considered under the jurisdiction of the existing member state, unless the mayor decides to change which state he or she represents.

c) If the transferred constituent city is transferred to a player who represents an Observer, the transferred constituent city shall be considered to be under the jurisdiction of the existing Observer State. If the transferred constituent city meets the requirements for full membership,the Observer state may be upgraded to full membership status, if the mayor chooses to do so.

d) If the member state which transferred the constituent cities no longer has any constituent city which meets the requirements for full membership, the state must be reduced to Observer status, unless it is already an Observer, in which it shall remain as an Observer.

Section 5

In the event that a member is temporarily banned from the MRT server as an official administrative punishment, then the member must be demoted to Observer for the length of the temporary ban. Officers and Justices who are temporarily banned shall be considered inactive for the duration of the ban, and an impeachment resolution against said Officer/Justice must be automatically proposed to the General Assembly.

If a member is permanently banned from the MRT server, they automatically forfeit their membership in the United Cities and vacate any positions that they have held within the United Cities.

A ban against a member’s account which has been done as a preventative measure because of concerns that the account was compromised shall not cause the provisions of this section to take effect.

Bans against members may be certified as an administrative ban either by a combination of two Officers or MRT staff members, or by the Court. A certification that was made outside the Court may be reviewed by the Court if the validity of the certification is in question.

Article II

Section 1

The General Assembly shall serve as the sole legislative authority of the United Cities. It shall serve as the voice of the members of the United Cities. All full members of the United Cities except the President shall be a member of the General Assembly.

Section 2

Resolutions may be proposed by any member of the General Assembly or the President with an endorsement from at least three other full members. A special exemption may be granted by the President to waive the requirement to have three endorsements.

Any resolution proposed must list the proposer of the resolution, and any endorsements or exemption from endorsements, if applicable, which shall not be considered as part of the text of the resolution. Resolution timers must include a time zone, whether that be the proposer’s time zone or UTC. A note must also be added declaring whether the resolution is a Constitutional Amendment, an Enacted Resolution, or a Motion. If the resolution is a Motion, the type of Motion as authorized by law must be specified in the declaration. Such declaration shall not be considered as part of the text of the resolution. The text of the resolution as it is presented to the General Assembly is the exact text that will be enacted.

The General Assembly shall have 24 hours to vote on a resolution after it has been posted to the MRT Wiki. Voting shall occur on the Wiki, and a template shall be provided for voting. General Assembly members may either add the word “YEA” next to their name to indicate a vote for the resolution or the word “NAY” next to their name to indicate their vote on the resolution. Any vote not in that format is to be discarded. A simple majority of votes in favor is required for resolutions to pass the General Assembly except in cases where it is specified otherwise within this Constitution.

In the event of a tie, the Vice President shall have 24 hours to cast a vote to break the tie. If the office of Vice President is vacant or the Vice President fails to cast a vote within 24 hours, then the order in which the tiebreaker vote shall be passed down shall be the Chief Justice, Attorney General, and Secretary of Enforcement. If all of these three offices are vacant and/or their holder fails to cast a vote within 24 hours, then the resolution shall immediately pass the General Assembly.

If the resolution passes the General Assembly, the president shall have 72 hours to sign the resolution into law or veto it. If a resolution is vetoed, the members of the General Assembly shall have 24 hours to vote on an override of the veto. 75% of the votes cast in an override vote must be in favor for the override to take effect and the resolution to be enacted into law.

If the President fails to take action on the resolution within 72 hours of its passage of the General Assembly, then a pocket veto shall occur and the resolution shall return to the General Assembly for an override attempt. However, only 60% of the votes cast on the override attempt shall be required to be in favor for the override to occur.

After the Constitutionally mandated time has elapsed for General Assembly voting, the tiebreaker vote, and Presidential approval/veto of any resolution, voting shall only close upon the page being updated by a member of the United Cities to reflect the closure of voting. Any votes cast, ties broken, or Presidential approvals or vetoes done after the time limit has passed and before the page has been updated to reflect it as such shall be counted.

Resolutions shall have the following categories: Constitutional Amendments, Enacted Resolutions, and Motions. Constitutional Amendments are resolutions that amend the Constitution. These resolutions require a 60% in favor vote by the General Assembly to be enacted rather than a simple majority. Enacted resolutions are resolutions which establish new laws or amend existing ones outside of the Constitution. Motions are resolutions which do not establish or change laws but rather are held in procedure with an existing law, such as the confirmation of an Associate Justice or Secretary of Enforcement.

Section 3

The General Assembly shall have the sole authority to remove an Officer or Justice from their position. These resolutions shall be termed as impeachment resolutions, a form of Motion. Like other resolutions, impeachment resolutions may be proposed by full members and require three endorsements from full members, however this requirement may not be waived by the President. A supermajority of 60% of votes cast must be in favor for the impeachment resolution to pass. In addition, a quota of 15 votes is needed; if 15 votes are not cast by the time the 24-hour voting deadline passes, voting shall remain open at least until 15 votes have been cast. If the resolution passes, the Officer or Justice shall both be removed from their position and be disqualified to hold an Officer position or become a Justice anytime in the future. This disqualification may be reversed by a normal resolution which would only require a simple majority to pass.

The power to demote a member to Observer or expel a player from the United Cities shall also be given to the General Assembly. A member may be demoted to Observer through a Motion which must have three endorsements from full members as normal resolutions require, and must have a 60% supermajority be in favor to pass, with a 15 vote quota required. If the quota is not met after twenty-four hours of voting in the General Assembly, voting shall remain open at least until the 15th vote is cast. Demotions may not last indefinitely, and a time length for demotion must be specified between 7 days and 3 months. Officers may not be demoted to Observer by a resolution.

A resolution that proposes the expulsion of a member must get five endorsements from full members, not three like traditional resolutions. This resolution, which shall be a form of Motion, is also not eligible for a Presidential exemption. These resolutions must be open to General Assembly voting for 48 hours, and a quota of 25 votes is needed for voting to close. A supermajority of 75% of votes cast must be in favor of the resolution in order for the expulsion to proceed. Officers who are expelled by the GA will immediately vacate their position upon the passage of the resolution. If a player is expelled from the United Cities, they may not rejoin the United Cities unless the General Assembly passes a resolution to lift this restriction for the expelled player, which must have 60% of votes cast be in favor to pass.

The President may not veto any resolution that seeks to remove from office, demote, or expel a player. The President also may not veto a resolution that seeks to return eligibility to a player to hold an Officer or Justice position or to rejoin the United Cities if it passses the General Assembly.

Section 4

The Vice President shall be the presiding officer of the General Assembly. He shall have the ability to propose a meeting of the General Assembly through a resolution which does not require any endorsements. This resolution shall specify the time and date of the meeting.

The Vice President shall facilitate and organize meetings; he may have the power to ask for the assistance of other GA members or of the President. If the Vice President is unable to do so, the President may assume the role of Vice President or temporarily assign it to another player. The agenda shall be directed by the Vice President, and any member of the General Assembly may request for a proposal to be added to the agenda. However, resolutions may not be passed at a General Assembly meeting, and must be passed through the normal process as outlined in Article II, Section 2.

If there are not enough players to hold the meeting at the scheduled time, the meeting may be delayed up to two hours. If after two hours the meeting is not held, it is considered cancelled and a new resolution is required in order to hold another meeting.

Section 5

In the event that the MRT Wiki becomes generally inaccessible to edit due to a server-side issue and voting on a resolution is interrupted, the voting shall be temporarily suspended. This may be done by a certification that the Wiki is inaccessible that may either be promulgated by the Court or with the endorsement of two Officers who are not Justices.

Voting may resume immediately following the restoration of editing access. A certification must again be made that the Wiki is accessible to editing again with the endorsement of two Officers or by the Court. Once this certification is made, then the voting deadline shall be rounded up to the next multiple of 24 hours from the time the certification is made.

Section 6

The General Assembly shall have the power to ratify treaties with other MPOs. Resolutions to ratify a treaty may be proposed by the President following the signature of a treaty, and only require a simple majority to pass. Treaty ratifications shall be passed as Motions.

The GA may also create legislative committees through Enacted Resolution under the procedures of Article V and has the power to oversee them.

Players are ineligible to vote on any resolution for which the voting began prior to their assumption of the right to vote in the General Assembly. Veto override attempts shall count as the same voting period as the original GA voting, and players who joined after the first voting period within the GA began but before the override voting began shall still be prohibited from voting in the override.

All powers that are not explicitly delegated to a specific position or body within this Constitution are held by the General Assembly.

Article III

Section 1

The United Cities shall hold elections every three months on the third Sunday of each month, counting forwards from July 2018. The election shall last for exactly 7 days (168 hours). The time that the Election shall start shall be set by the General Assembly in an enacted resolution, provided that the start time is between 0:00 and 23:59 UTC on the third Sunday of the month.

The positions of President, Vice President, Attorney General, and Chief Justice shall be up for election at each Election. Elections are to be facilitated by the United Cities Electoral Commission. Both Full members and Observers may vote in elections. The winner for each race will be determined by an instant runoff system.

Officers and Justices may be elected to an unlimited amount of terms; however, they may serve no more than two consecutive terms in each Officer or Justice position. In addition, if a player has served three consecutive terms as an Officer and/or Justice, they may not take any Officer or Justice position for the following term. Serving 45 days or more in an office shall be considered a full term. ₂

Candidate Registration for any United Cities election is to begin at midnight GMT 21 days prior to the scheduled start of the election and end at midnight GMT 10 days prior to the scheduled start of the election. In the event that the constitution is amended to delay the start of the election after candidate registration has already opened, registration shall remain open until midnight GMT 10 days prior to the new scheduled start of the election. Candidates may still withdraw from the Election at any time up until the beginning of the Election.

Any vote cast in a United Cities election must be cast by a player who is eligible to vote for the entirety of the Election’s duration.

Voting shall use an instant-runoff style of voting as described below:
Each voter shall, rather than vote for their preferred candidate, vote by writing all the candidates in a list, from most to least preferred.

1. The Electoral Commission shall then add up all of the first preference choices for each candidate.
2. If one choice has more than 50% of the vote, then that candidate will automatically win the election.
   1. The EC must eliminate the candidate with the lowest amounts of votes if no candidate wins over 50% of the vote.
3. The EC shall then look at all the people who voted 1st preference for the failed candidate and instead add their 2nd preference vote to their respective candidates total votes on the original voting form.
4. If no candidate has not yet reached 50%, then the Clerk will need to repeat the process with eliminating the 2nd lowest ranking candidate.
5. If the 2nd eliminated candidate was a voters 2nd preference vote, then their 3rd preference shall be added (and so on).
6. In the event that someone's 2nd preference vote has already been eliminated, then that vote will be discarded.
7. The election will only be won when either one candidate has over 50% of the vote, or they are the only candidate left.
   

The newly elected Officers shall take their positions 48 hours following the release of the certified election results.

In the event that, after the Electoral Commission has certified the final vote tally, for the election to any officer position there is a tie between the final two remaining candidates, after all other candidates have been eliminated through the instant runoff system, the Electoral Commission is to certify a tie, in which there is no declared Officer-elect for the position in which the election to fill ended in a tie. Upon the newly elected officers taking office, such position shall be vacant.

If the vacant position in question is for any elected Officer position other than the Presidency, the newly elected President shall have the power to choose one of the two candidates who tied in the election for the vacant position, who will immediately assume their position. If this right is not exercised within 24 hours of the President assuming office, the power to fill the vacancy will be passed along the line of Presidential succession, and each Officer in the line of succession will have an additional 24 hours to choose one of the two candidates.

If the vacant position in question is the Presidency, the newly elected Vice President will assume duties as the Acting President and shall have the power to choose one of the two candidates who tied in the election for the Presidency, who will immediately assume power as President of the United Cities. If this right is not exercised within 24 hours of the Vice President assuming office, the power to choose the President will be passed along the line of Presidential succession, and each officer in the line of succession will have 24 hours to choose a President before the right to choose the President passes further down the line of succession.

In the event that, when calculating the votes in a race with more than two candidates, the Electoral Commission should find that, in any round of instant runoff, two or more candidates have tied in the number of votes for last place, an no candidate has received more than 50% of votes, all candidates who tied are to be eliminated in the round in question, and their votes redistributed in the next round where there is only one candidate who did not tie for last place, the candidate who has received a plurality of the vote shall win the election.

Section 2

The United Cities Electoral Commission, hereby referred to as the EC, is tasked with facilitating United Cities Elections every three months. The commission consists of 5 members who have been nominated by the President and confirmed by a simple majority in the General Assembly. Each member must acquire 3 non-officer endorsements before being nominated by the President. Commission members are not required to be members of the United Cities; however, they may not be an incumbent officer or candidate in the election for which they are nominated for. Electoral Commissioners are not considered to be officers of the United Cities.

The EC is responsible for creating the voting form and collecting votes during the United Cities election which they are assembled for. The EC shall internally decide on a chair, who shall be designated as the Chief Electoral Commissioner. The EC is to create an online form in which players can submit their votes for an election. All commissioners must be granted access to the responses for this form. Each voter must also submit their username along with a validation code, which is to be assigned to them by the EC. Each member of the United Cities who is eligible to vote in the election must receive a unique validation code for use in that election. The EC shall make reasonable attempts to ensure each eligible member receives a validation code. In the event that an eligible member is not in the United Cities Discord, the code shall be sent using the /mail command on the MRT server.

The EC shall be mandated to set each question on the official ballot, in which candidates are chosen by the voter, to be non-required questions, such that a voter can choose to participate in the election of some Officers but abstain from the election of other Officers.

Should a candidate be removed from an election for Officer while the election is ongoing, the official ballot shall continue to bear their name, and the EC is hereby instructed to redistribute all votes cast for that candidate to the second choice candidate, unless the second choice candidate has been removed, in which case the vote will be distributed down the list. If only one candidate remains in an election, that candidate is the automatic winner.

Upon closing of the election, each member of the EC must independently certify the results, and each must declare their certification as a comment on a Google Doc page featuring the results of the election. All certification comments must include the list of candidates they confirm to be officer elects alongside which roles they are elected for and the full and complete tallies. The following phrase must also be utilized: “I, <player>, hereby certify the results listed above to be correct and accurate to the extent of my knowledge.” <player> is to be replaced with the electoral commission member’s full Minecraft username.

Once all commissioners have certified the results of the election, the next available commissioner must share the results document containing the vote tallies, percentages, and certifications with the United Cities. The EC must release the results of an election within 36 hours following the closure of the polls. Should they fail to do so, the court is permitted to subpoena the results. Failure to comply with such a subpoena within 24 hours will result in the members of the commission being dismissed from the commission, an entirely new commission being chosen, and the election being restarted with the same candidates.

Section 3

The President of the United Cities shall be the head of the organization. He has the power to either enact or veto a resolution once it passes the General Assembly. He also represents the United Cities, facilitating discussions involving and within the UC and handling conflicts along with other involved officers. The President is not a member of the General Assembly and therefore does have a vote in resolutions, unless a specific exemption is noted in the constitution.

The President shall have the ability to create committees to do projects with the endorsement of two other Officers, as provided in Article V. The President shall also have the ability to oversee committees, though he may not take any actions regarding the committees that are not otherwise provided for in law.

The President shall also serve as the chief diplomat of the United Cities. He shall have the power to lead discussions with other MPOs as well as with the MRT Staff. The President may also sign treaties with other MPOs, though treaties may only be ratified by the General Assembly.

The President shall have ownership of the United Cities Discord on behalf of the United Cities and collectively with the other Officers manage the Discord. Other regulations on the Discord may be set by the General Assembly within law, which the President and other Officers are required to follow. When a new President enters office, the previous President must in good faith transfer ownership of the Discord to the new President.

Section 4

The Vice President of the United Cities primarily oversees the General Assembly. The Vice President owns the tiebreaker votes for a resolution in the case there is a tie in voting. In the case where a President resigns or is impeached, the Vice President assumes the Presidency for the remainder of the term. The Vice President is a member of the General Assembly and has full voting privileges.

The Attorney General of the United Cities shall be responsible for manners related to United Cities law, including maintenance and updating of the Constitution, the Enacted Resolutions list, and the Resolutions Archive, for acting as a legal advisor to the President, and for representing the United Cities in the United Cities Court. They oversee the Department of Law. The Department of Law includes the Attorney General and any staff members the Attorney General may appoint to assist in his or her duties. The Attorney General may delegate duties to Department of Law employees.

The Secretary of Enforcement shall lead the United Cities Department of Enforcement. The Secretary of Enforcement is to be appointed by the President and confirmed by a resolution before the General Assembly. In the event the Secretary of Enforcement position becomes vacant, the President shall have a 14 day countdown, starting from the moment the vacancy was created, to nominate a replacement. When a nominee has been chosen and placed for a confirmation vote, the countdown shall be stopped. If a nominee fails to pass the General Assembly, the President will receive 5 days to pick a replacement. This process repeats until a nominee passes the General Assembly or the President fails to make a nomination before the time expires. If the President fails to nominate a Secretary of Enforcement before the countdown is up, the power to nominate is stripped from the President and given to the General Assembly. Any General Assembly may nominate an eligible player to the position, given they receive three other endorsements. Upon meeting the aforementioned criteria, a resolution shall be placed before the General Assembly for voting. Upon this resolutions passing, the President may not veto the nomination.

These employees shall have all the same powers as the Secretary of Enforcement; however, they are not considered Officers in the United Cities. The Secretary of Enforcement and the Department of Enforcement has the power to issue an Enforcement Citation. Enforcement Citations may be given for any violation of the MRT Rules or of UC law. Enforcement Citations shall expire after 30 days. They may be appealed to the United Cities Court, which shall have oversight over the issuance of Enforcement Citations.

If a member has three Enforcement Citations take effect against them, then an order must be issued to remove the member from the United Cities. The removal shall take effect within 24 hours of the issuance of the order, which is subject to appeal to the United Cities Court. A player may not join the United Cities if a removal order is in effect against them. The Department of Enforcement retains the power to revoke an Enforcement Citation or removal order, including one issued under a previous administration.

The Secretary of Enforcement may issue Enforcement Citations to any Officer or Justice of the United Cities, however a removal order may not be immediately issued upon an Officer or Justice receiving three Enforcement Citations. Rather, upon an Officer or Justice receiving three active Enforcement Citations, the Officer or Justice must be removed from his or her official position, through impeachment, resignation, or other legal means, before a removal order may be issued.

Section 5

If the office of President becomes vacant, then the Vice President shall become President. If the office of Vice President is also vacant, then the line of succession shall be the following: Attorney General, Secretary of Enforcement, Chief Justice, and the Associate Justices, ordered by earlier assumption of office and if that time is the same, earlier accession to the United Cities.

If any other Officer position or the position of Chief Justice becomes vacant, the President shall nominate a successor to fill the position for the remainder of the term. This nomination must be confirmed by a simple majority vote in the General Assembly. The President shall have 15 days from the opening of the vacancy to nominate a successor, and 5 days from each failed confirmation if a confirmation vote fails. If this deadline is not met, any member of the General Assembly may propose a resolution to appoint a member to fill the vacancy which shall not be subject to veto.

Section 6

Inactivity is defined as the period of time for which a player both does not join the MRT Minecraft server and does not vote on (or in the case of the President, sign or veto) a resolution in the United Cities.

If an Officer or Justice has been inactive for 15 consecutive days, they shall be officially declared inactive and shall temporarily lose the ability to execute the powers and responsibilities of their office. If the President becomes inactive, the Vice President shall become acting President. If this occurs for any other Officer position, or the position of Chief Justice, the President shall be able to appoint a qualified member of the United Cities to act in that position. The Chief Justice may also appoint an Acting Associate Justice in the event an Associate Justice becomes inactive. An acting officer or Chief Justice shall assume all of the powers and responsibilities of the office that they are filling; they must also be currently eligible to assume that position. Players may not act in multiple Officer positions. If a Vice President becomes an Acting President, then they are considered to be inactive as Vice President, and the new Acting President may appoint another player to become Acting Vice President.

Officers or Justices when they cease their inactivity may reassume their powers and responsibilities once they announce that the inactivity has ended on the United Cities Discord and/or MRT Wiki. In addition, an Officer or Justice may voluntarily declare inactivity and allow another player to be appointed to act in their position by declaring this on the MRT Wiki and/or United Cities Discord.

If an Officer or Justice has reached 30 consecutive days of not joining the server and not voting on a resolution, an impeachment resolution shall be automatically proposed against the player in the General Assembly. This resolution shall not require endorsements, but shall still be subject to the normal processes and regulations of an impeachment resolution. An impeachment resolution shall not be auto-proposed against an inactive Officer or Justice who self-declared their inactivity.

Article IV

Section 1

An official Court of the United Cities will be established, which will have the jurisdiction to enforce the provisions set forth in this Constitution and other binding legislation and settle disputes regarding the interpretation of the Constitution and other United Cities Laws through binding court orders. The Court shall not have the power to enforce any policies that are not written into UC Law.

Section 2

The United Cities Court shall have three Justices: a Chief Justice and two Associate Justices. The Justices shall not be considered Officers and shall be considered separate from the Officers. The Chief Justice shall be elected to a three-month long term and shall take office 48 hours following the release of election results, along with the other newly elected Officers. In addition, the Associate Justices shall leave their positions when the elected term of the Chief Justice who nominated them was scheduled to end. The Associate Justices shall be nominated by the Chief Justice and confirmed by the General Assembly; the President may not use veto power against any resolutions to confirm an Associate Justice, but he/she shall instead be allowed to vote with other General Assembly members on the confirmation.

The Chief Justice shall have 14 days from his/her accession to office to nominate each Associate Justice, with a 5 day extension from a failed confirmation, if it occurs. If this deadline is not met for either vacancy, then any member of the General Assembly may propose a resolution with 3 endorsements to nominate an eligible member of the United Cities to fill the vacancy, which like Chief Justice nominations shall not be subject to veto.

Justices shall be subject to impeachment resolutions and removal from office as other Officers are.

Section 3

Any member of the United Cities may submit a Court Case for review by the Court. The case may either be dismissed with the approval of all three Justices, heard by one Justice individually, or heard en banc by all Justices together. Cases heard by one Justice may be appealed en banc. All en banc decisions shall be final.

Preliminary injunctions may be issued by a Justice before a case to stop any actions that may violate United Cities law. Injunctions shall be considered binding, however they may not last for longer than 7 days unless otherwise provided for within law.

The Court may issue court orders to enforce a ruling in a case, which shall be considered binding.

All other Court procedures may be set by the Court independently, provided that it is published and that it does not violate any existing provisions within United Cities Law. The General Assembly shall reserve the right to override Court procedures and/or enact its own restrictions on the Court within UC Law through enacted resolutions.

Article V

Section 1

Committees may be formed for the purpose of executing projects and other actions in the name of the United Cities.

Any player, including non-members of the United Cities, is eligible to be a member of a committee unless otherwise specified by law.

Section 2

There shall be two types of committees. Executive committees may be formed by the President with the approval of two other Officers. Legislative committees shall be formed by a law passed by the General Assembly.

Executive committees must, within a week of their formation, have a framework published for it that outlines the purpose of the committee and its operation. Executive committees must also have a Chair designated within a week unless otherwise provided for within their framework. They may execute any projects as long as the budget is either $0 or paid for by the President out of his/her personal finances, unless otherwise provided for by laws passed by the General Assembly. Executive committees may be disbanded by a resolution passed by the General Assembly or by the President with the approval of two Officers. All projects that are being executed by the committee in question at the time of its disbandment must continue to be executed by a special committee consisting of all of the players working on the project at that time unless otherwise provided for in law.

Legislative committees are formed by an Enacted Resolution passed by the General Assembly. The Enacted Resolution to form the committee must contain a framework for the purpose and operation of the committee. Legislative committees may only be disbanded by another Enacted Resolution.

The General Assembly shall reserve the right to pass legislation to further regulate both executive and legislative committees.

Article VI

Section 1

The MRT Rules shall be superior to any laws passed by the United Cities, and any parts of this Constitution or other UC laws that are in conflict with the MRT Rules are invalid.

The United Cities Constitution shall be the supreme law of the United Cities after the MRT Rules and override all other UC Laws. Ratified treaties shall be treated equivalent to Enacted Resolutions, and both override any executive actions.

Section 2

If through the referendum at the July 2018 Election this Constitution is adopted, it shall come into effect 48 hours following the results of the election being released. The Officers elected in the July 2018 election will still take office 48 hours following the release of the results and no provisions in this Constitution shall be used to prevent those Officers from acceding to their respective positions.

All committees in existence at the time of this Constitution taking effect shall continue to exist with the same membership and same Chair. In addition, the entirety of the previous Constitution as well as all Enacted Resolutions except for Enacted Resolutions 1, 22, 25, 27, 29 (excluding portions overridden by Enacted Resolution 47), 35, 36, 47, 48, 52, and 56 shall be rendered null and void.

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This Constitution has been officially enacted as of July 25, 2018, and we are honored to provide the community with it to make a better United Cities.

Written by The Constitutional Reform Committee
Skelezomperman (Chair)
_ezzo
KittyCat11231
MindBender15
ryanfr

Amendment 1: The End of Life Act

By enacting this amendment, the General Assembly and the President of the United Cities hereby proclaim that the United Cities should be disbanded as an organization.

The September 2018 election will continue as scheduled, but all future elections will be cancelled. All committees currently in the process of completing projects are to detail in a report, to be submitted by the date and time of the inauguration of the Officers elected in the September 2018 election, the details and progress of these projects, and individual resolutions shall be proposed, exempt from endorsement requirements, for the General Assembly to vote on whether each project should continue.

The United Cities shall continue to function on an organizational level for the duration in which the committees complete any projects which the General Assembly has approved the continuance of by resolution, however no new committees may be formed and no new projects may be undertaken by committees. The chair of each committee must inform the General Assembly, in a report, when its projects have been completed.

Once all ongoing projects are completed, a resolution may be proposed through the normal means to formally disband the United Cities, which shall take effect at 7 PM GMT on the seventh day following its enactment (the day of enactment shall be determined by the time in GMT). Upon this moment, the United Cities shall cease to exist.

Enacted Resolutions 35 and 52 and section II clauses iii, iv, and v of Enacted Resolution 27 are nullified. Any portion of an enacted resolution or the Constitution which conflicts with this amendment is nullified.

Amendment 2: The Critical Abolishment of Senseless Term Limits Eternally (CASTLE) Act

Upon the passage of this resolution, all term limits shall be abolished for all Officer and Justice positions within the United Cities. Any member shall be allowed to run for any Officer or Justice regardless of prior Officer or Justice positions held. Upon the passage of this resolution, the third paragraph of Article III Section 1 of the Constitution, which reads, "Officers and Justices may be elected to an unlimited amount of terms; however, they may serve no more than two consecutive terms in each Officer or Justice position. In addition, if a player has served three consecutive terms as an Officer and/or Justice, they may not take any Officer or Justice position for the following term. Serving 45 days or more in an office shall be considered a full term," shall be repealed and stricken from the Constitution.

Amendment 3: The September 2018 Election Certification Act

_Kastle is certified the winner of the Presidential election of October 2018. Cookie46910 is certified the winner of the Vice Presidential election of October 2018. ryanfr is certified the winner of the Attorney General election of October 2018. megascatterbomb is certified the winner of the Chief Justice election of October 2018. The winners of the election shall take office immediately upon the enactment of this amendment.

Amendment 4: The Massive Evaluation of General Assets and Subsequent Consideration of Possible Ends (MEGA-SCOPE) Act

Upon passage of this resolution, a report must be made listing all assets owned and controlled solely by the United Cities and its committees. This report will detail, for each asset, which one of the three following actions upon the United Cities dissolution: Transfer to members of the MRT Server of the committees’ choice, be put up for general auction at a General Staff Meeting, or be transferred directly to the MRT Staff, who may handle the assets at their discretion. Following the publication of this report, the General Assembly will propose a resolution to dissolve the United Cities.

The procedures for enacting the above clauses are as follows:

The report is to be constructed as stated in the following four ‘report clauses’:

1: All current committee chairs have exactly one week to submit a report detailing the assets that they currently both own and control completely, as well as what action is to be taken with each asset. This report must be made in the form of a Google Doc, to allow people to sign the document via a comment. This report is to be made public upon completion, and the president is to be notified of the report’s completion. If no assets are owned and controlled completely by a committee, then that committee’s chair must simply inform the President that this is the case. Assets that are managed by the committee but not owned by the committee are to be left alone, as they fall under the ownership of their respective owner. Each committee’s report must be signed by either A: the committee chair and at least 2 other members of said committee; or B: a majority of the committee. A signature must consist of a comment on a google doc, stating the person’s name and explicit approval.

a) The possible actions that may be taken upon dissolution for each asset are as follows:

 i) The asset may be transferred to a member, group, or entity of the MRT Server. If this action is chosen, the member who will receive said asset must be specified and that member must agree to receipt of the asset.
 ii) The asset may be put up for general auction at an upcoming GSM.
 iii) The asset may be transferred to MRT Staff, who may handle the assets at their own discretion.

b) Should a committee fail to prepare this report by the deadline, the action specified in clause 1aiii will be taken for all assets handled by said committee.

c) If no action has been decided upon for a particular asset specified in the report by the deadline, the action specified in clause 1aiii will be chosen for all affected assets.

2: Once the President has obtained reports from all committee chairs, the President has one week to collate all the reports from each committee into a final report. This report will also be in the form of a Google Doc and will also include any assets that are owned and controlled by the United Cities, but not owned or controlled by any committees, and what action should be taken with said assets. The actions that must be assigned to each asset are the same as specified in clause 1a. If no assets are to be appended by the President, then the President must append a statement indicating that this is the case. Assets that are managed by the United Cities but not owned by the United Cities are to be left alone, as they fall under the ownership of their respective owner. This report requires the sole signature of the President.

a) A sentence must be added at the end of the report stating “Any assets formerly belonging to the United Cities that are not listed in this report are assumed to be under the ownership of the MRT Staff.”

b) If clause 1b has been triggered for any or all committees, then clause 2 may still trigger, collating only the reports that have been received. A statement must be made in the report detailing if clause 1b has been triggered, and by what committees.

c) Should the President fail to create the report, the responsibility for the finalization of the report shall fall to the next active member of the United Cities in the Presidential Line of Succession. This clause also transfers the single signature requirement to that person. The one-week deadline shall be reset should this clause be triggered by such deadline’s expiry.

d) If no eligible members remain in the line of succession, all assets currently owned or controlled by the United Cities but not by any of its committees will be transferred to MRT Staff upon dissolution, as specified in clause 1aiii.

3: Upon completion of the said report, the President shall make the report public by posting a link to the said report in the UC discord #announcements channel.

a) If clause 2c is triggered, the respective person handling the report shall make the report public.

b) If clause 2d is triggered, all of the committee’s reports shall be concatenated into one report with no other modifications, and the publication of said report must be handled by any officer or justice of the United Cities. This must occur within one week of this subclause’s triggering.

c) If clause 1b has been triggered for every committee, and clause 2d has also been triggered, the report shall simply state “All assets of the United Cities and its committees are to be transferred to the MRT Staff, to be handled at their discretion.”. Triggering of this subclause will prevent subclause 3b from being triggered.

4: This report shall merely detail the actions to be taken upon dissolution. No transfer of ownership will take place until the times stated later in this amendment.

Upon the completion and publication of the complete report, the following 4 ‘dissolution clauses’ regarding potential dissolution will be followed:

5: A dissolution resolution will be proposed by any full member of the United Cities. This resolution will follow standard voting procedure, as laid out by the current constitution, with the following exceptions:

 a) The resolution may be proposed by any member of the General Assembly or the President.
 b) The resolution is exempt from the requirement of three endorsements or a presidential exemption that is usually required. The resolution may be immediately put up for voting by a full member of the United Cities.
 c) The resolution requires at least 5 NAY votes, in addition to a failure to gain at least 50% YEA votes, to fail.
 d) In the event there is an equal number of votes of YEA and NAY, the dissolution resolution shall pass.
 e) The president may cast a vote on the dissolution resolution, which is equal in value to any other vote. The voting table for the dissolution resolution may be modified to account for this.
 f) The requirement for the President to sign the dissolution resolution into law is to be ignored. The President may not veto the dissolution resolution.

6: The dissolution resolution must read as follows:

 “This resolution is a motion that will trigger clause 7 of Amendment ###.
 
 Upon the passage of this motion, clause 7 of Amendment ### will be triggered.
 
 This action will cause assets to be transferred, as described in clause 7 of the aforementioned amendment.
 
 This action will dissolve the United Cities, as described in clause 7 of the aforementioned amendment.
 
 It is noted that, per Amendment ###, failure of this resolution to be enacted will trigger clause 8, repealing Amendment ### itself.”

Amendment “###” is to be replaced with the respective number this amendment is assigned on its passage.

7: In the event that the dissolution resolution passes and this clause is triggered, the following actions will immediately occur unless otherwise specified:

a) The assets belonging to the United Cities and its committees will be transferred to new owners, as described in the aforementioned report. In the event that an asset is not listed in the report, or no report is submitted at all, all unlisted assets are to be transferred to the MRT Staff.

b) An email shall be sent to staff by the Chief Justice of the United Cities to the MRT Staff, with an attachment containing the aforementioned report, as well as an explanation that the UC has dissolved and it’s assets are being transferred as described in the report. If no report exists, the email to MRT Staff must state that all assets belonging to the United Cities are now under the ownership of MRT Staff.

c) If the Chief Justice is inactive (as described in Article I Section 5 and Article III Section 6 of the constitution), an Associate Justice may perform this action. If both the Chief Justice and both Associate Justices are inactive, any Officer may perform this action. In the event all officers and justices are inactive, any member of the General Assembly may perform this action.

d) Exactly 24 hours after the enactment of the dissolution resolution, this subclause will trigger. Upon this subclause triggering, all provisions of the Constitution, except for this one, will be immediately considered repealed. All enacted resolutions shall be repealed immediately following this subclause’s triggering. All motions, except the motion that triggers clause 7, shall be considered ineffectual immediately following this subclause’s triggering. All committees shall be disbanded immediately following this subclause’s triggering. All UC Wiki pages and the UC Discord shall continue to exist as an archive. The current owner of the United Cities Discord may choose to transfer ownership or continue to administrate it themselves.

8: In the event that the dissolution resolution fails, this amendment will repeal itself immediately following the failure of said resolution.

This amendment and the follow-up dissolution resolution are exempt from any part of the constitution that conflicts with said amendment and resolution.