Preamble: We, the citizens of USA_Sim, in order to form a more user friendly political simulation do establish and ordain these bylaws. DEFINITION OF TERMS: Administration party: the major party which the President of the USA is from in real-life (in other words, as of this writing, June of 2002, the Republican Party) Opposition party: the major party which the President is NOT from in real-life (in other words, as of this writing, June of 2002, the Democrat Party) Majority party: the major party holding the most seats in the Senate (orHouse of Reps, depending) in real life (in other words, as of this writing, June of 2002, in the Senate, the Democrat Party) Minority party: the major party NOT holding the most seats in the Senate (orHouse of Reps, depending) in real life (in other words, as of this writing, June of 2002, in the Senate, the Republican Party) ARTICLES: 1) The Administration party's Senatorial caucus shall select a President and Vice President of USASim, who will each serve a four-month term, and no more than two consecutive terms in the same office. The President and Vice President must be members of USA_Sim, but need not be Senators, at the time of their election. 2) The President shall function as the Chief Administrator of USA_Sim, approving or denying all new memberships and handling all administrative matters withYahoo! He shall be listed as the "Owner" of the main USA_Sim group for the term of his office, handing over Ownership to the next President at his successor's inauguration. Additionally, the President shall have veto power over all bills passed, as in the Constitution of the real U.S. 3) The Vice President shall function as the President of the USA_Sim Senate, approving the agenda created by the Majority Leader and handling all parliamentary procedural matters. He shall be listed as the "Owner" of thegroup designated as the floor of the USA_Sim Senate for the term of his office, handing over Ownership to the next Vice President at his inauguration. Additionally, the Vice President shall temporarily serve as President of USA_Sim in the event of the President's vacation, illness, incapacitation, or conviction on impeachment charges, as in the Constitution of the real U.S. 4) In the event of of the permanent vacation of the office of President or Vice President of USA_Sim, for whatever reason, there shall be a one- week selection process for a new person to fill that vacancy for the remainder of the four-month term. During the selection process, the office shall be held temporarily as stated in 3 and 4 above. The selection process shall be as in 1 above. The time spent in office for the person selected to take the President or Vice President's place shall not count against them for future service in that position. 5) The Secretary of Senate shall serve as chief clerk of the Senate, assisting in all matters pertaining to the process of legislation. The position shall be considered that of leadership in the Senate, being listed as "moderator"; and all the basic rights and responsibilities associated with that status, also theright of speaking without moderation, delivery options of the Senate Archives,but no further. The position shall be filled through the process of appointment by the Majority Leader; must be a member of USA_Sim at time of nomination; but need not be a Senator. The Secretary of Senate shall assist the Vice President on parliamentary procedural matters and shall submit successful bills unto the President for signature. The Office of the Secretary of the Senate shall exist as the place for original bills to be submitted. All bills must include the appropriate number of co-sponsors to be considered valid. The Senate Majority leader shall have ownership of this group with the Secretary of the Senate serving as a moderator with all the owner tools except the right to add moderator priviledges or delete the group. If a vacancy exists for said office, the Senate Majority Leader shall assume the role of Acting Secretary. 6) There shall be a Supreme Court of the USA_Sim, composed of 5 members. All Supreme Court justices must be members of USA_Sim, but need not be Senators, at the time of their selection. The full Senate must agree, by separate majority votes, to the selected Justices from each party. Only by a 2/3 negative committee vote not including those who vote present shall the nominee be denied a full Senate vote. The President of USA_Sim shall select one of the sitting Justices to serve as Chief Justice, such selection not subject to the approval of the Senate. Justices shall serve life terms. A Supreme Court justice may be removed from office via impeachment and conviction. A replacement justice shall be appointed by the president subject to routine approval of the full Senate. 7) A) The Supreme Court of the USA_Sim shall have original and final jurisdiction over all disputes not involving I.P. fraud and intra-party discipline within USA_Sim upon a petition to them to hearthe dispute by one of the parties thereof, although the Court may decide not to take the case, by a 4/5 vote of the justices. The Court shall also have appellate jurisdiction for all cases of I.P. fraud and banishment from party caucuses. The Court shall have the power to stay all banishments, be they caucus related or I.P. related. The Court shall also have the right to issue gag orders, but only for the litigants in a pending case. The worst punishment they may mete out to any offender of the rules of USA_Sim is permanent banishment from USA_Sim. B) The USA_Sim Supreme Court should have jurisdiction in determining the Constitutionality of Bills or Laws that come out of the Sim and they shall also serve as a problem- solving body external to be Congressional houses. 8) When 100 Senators have been seated, USA_Sim *may* form a House of Representatives. No Senator shall be permitted to leave one elected House for another under the same id. A plan to form a House of Representatives must first be submitted to the Rules and Administration committee with the signatures of at least five elected officials in good standing. The final plan must be submitted by RANDA to the full Senate and must pass by a 2/3 majority. 9) Until a House of Representatives shall be formed, all powers delegated to the House in the real life U.S. Constitution shall be delegated to the Senate. 10) A) There shall be five Senate Committees and one oversight committee (RANDA): I) Environmental & Forestry: This committee will cover issues concerning the Environment, Energy, Natural Resources, Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. II) Banking & Appropriations: This committee will cover issues concerning Banking, Housing, Urban Affairs, Appropriations, Budget and Finance. III) Health, Education, & Commerce: This committee will cover issues concerning Health, Commerce, Education, Science, Transportation, Pension and Labor. IV) Armed Services & Foreign Relations: This committee will cover issues concerning Armed Services, Intelligence, Veteran Affairs and Foreign Relations. V) Judiciary: This committee will cover issues concerning the courts and the Constitution. VI) Rules & Administration: This non-Senate committee shall have oversight over the operation of USA_Sim, and shall consist of the VP, the PPT, the Majority and Minority Leaders, Majority and Minority Whips and three selected members from the respective Democratic and Republican Caucuses, the Secretary of Senate shall replace one elected seat, that of the party from which he is a member. The president of USA_Sim shall sit as a permanent speaking, but non-voting member. He shall also be prohibited from making or seconding motions. 11) The Democrat and Republican party leaders shall moderate the Judiciary, Environmental & Forestry, and Armed Services & Foreign Relations Committees. The Republican and Democrat party whips shall moderate the Banking & Appropriations and Health, Education & Commerce Committees. The chairs of these committees shall bechosen from among the majority party's caucus, and the vice chairs or "ranking members" shall be chosen from among the minority party's caucus. 12) The Rules & Administration Committee (RANDA) shall be chaired by the Senate President Pro Tempore, with the Vice President serving as Second Chair. 13) When 75 senators are seated, the above *may* be redivided into 10 committees, as approved by the Senate after approval by the Rules and Administration committee. When 100 senators are seated, thecommittees may be changed to reflect the setup in the real US Senate. 14) Legislation may be proposed to the Senate in one of two ways. The first way shall be for the bill's sponsor to find a co-sponsor from the other party, or two co-sponsors from his own party, and then submit their bill Secretary of Senate, who will then assign it to to the appropriate Committee, which shall decide whether or not to send that bill to the floor. Once passed, the committee chair shall submit the bill to the Secretary of Senate's official group, who will then send it forth to the majority party leader for inclusion in the agenda. If the committee decides the bill needs further consideration by another committee, it will submit the bill to the Secretary of Senate for, who shall then send it forth to said committee. The second way, submission directly to the floor, requires the co-sponsorship of three Senators from each major party and then submittal to Secretary of Senate, who will then send it forth to the majority party leader for inclusion in the agenda. 15) These bylaws shall serve as the official online constitution of USA_Sim. Should there be a conflict between the real life U.S. Constitution and the USA_Sim bylaws, the bylaws shall be the final authority. 16) Procedural Rules for the Senate Floor All Senate rules of procedure shall by default derive from the online version of Robert's Rules of Order. These rules may be altered by a law passed by the Senate and signed by the president. I. This procedure exists to facilitate the transaction of business and to promote cooperation and harmony. II. All members have equal rights, privileges, and obligations. ~The majority has the right to decide what the agenda is. ~The minority also has rights that must be protected. III. Full and free discussion of every motion considered is a basic right. This discussion is to take place in the USASim main page. The official debate is to take place on the Senate Floor. IV. Only one motion/amendment can be considered at any given time. V. Members have the right to know at all times what the immediately pending motion is, and to have it restated before a vote is taken. They also have a right to raise a Point of Order or an appeal to any vote or decision made by the presiding officer of the Senate. VI. The President of the Senate is the Vice President of USA_Sim. In the absence of the the Vice President, the President Pro Tempore, who is nominated by the Majority caucus and selected by the full Senate, shall be the presiding officer. In the absence of both the Vice President and the President Pro Tempore, the presiding officer shall be a senator chosen by the President Pro Tempore. VII. No member can speak until recognized by their party leader. When the Majority party caucus has control of the floor, no member of the Minority party caucus can speak until the list of Majority party speakers has been completed. Then the Minority caucus can speak and no Majority party caucus member can speak until list of Minority party speakers has been completed. All speakers must get approval to be recognized on the Senate Floor by their Party Leader. The Party Leaders are to keep a list of speakers for a certain bill so that they know who is next. They must also share this list with the opposing Caucus. Once the first go around of speakers by both Caucuses are completed, then the same process will begin again unless there is a motion to end debate. VII. No one can speak a second time on the same question as long as another wants to speak a first time. Again, the Party Leaders must approve you before you can speak on the Senate Floor. You will be placed on a Speakers List and you must follow the Speakers List at all time. Do not speak out of turn. IX. Any Senator who posts out of turn or doesn't follow the Senate FloorRules will risk being put on probation by the Vice President and President Pro Tempore. X. The presiding officer of the Senate must operate with strict impartiality. Failure to do so may lead to a permanent ban from leadership, that is to say a party leader, party whip, president pro tempore, presiding officer, secretary of the Senate, committee chairman, committee vice chairman, RNC Chair or DNC Chair. 17. USA_Sim takes member conduct very seriously. To achieve a true role playing environment, members are required to stay in character. In other words if the character you playing wouldn't say or do it, then don't do it. Forbidden acts include, but are not limited to are flaming, personal attacks, intimidation, threats, harassment, denigration of real life politicians, profanity and racism. Penalties for violating these ethical standards may range from a 48 hour post moderation to a two-week removal of posting priviledges, although any punishment higher than a 72 hour post moderation must be made by a majority vote of the moderators of the main board. A third time repeat offender must appear before the Supreme Court and faces a full range of punishment up to and including removal from the sim 18) There are three ways to remove a Senator or another elected official from the sim. The first shall be administrative. Both party caucuses shall conduct a monthly roll call. Any member who misses more than two consecutive roll calls may be dismissed administratively by the caucus with proof of at least 2 private emails being sent to the Senator in question. This action does not need approval from the Court as members are free to return. The second way is by a caucus disciplinary action which may include a ban up to 3 months. However members shall be allowed to seek relief from the Court. The third method, removal from the full Senate may be carried out as per the constitution by a 2/3 vote of the full Senate. In these cases the Senate shall have final jurisdiction. All Senators removed in the latter way shall also have their sim membership pulled. 19). Caucus and personal privacy is something we take very seriously. Therefore anyone who posts the dialogue from an instant message to any sim forum without all parties' permission shall be charged by the Attorney General and taken to court with a possible punishment of up to and including banishment from the sim. Furthermore any individual who posts a party caucus post to the main sim including his own shall be charged by the Attorney General and taken to court with a possible punishment of up to and including banishment from the sim. However any person who violates this rule in order to report a violation shall not be charged and have his identity shielded. 20) Each Senate party caucus shall have a charter that shall be written by the caucus members and approved. Once ratified the charter becomes the rule of law and may be enforced by the Attorney General and adjudicated by the Supreme Court. Caucus members have the right to report charter violations to the Attorney General if and only if the caucus leadership fails to address the situation. Caucus charters shall be treated as the equivalent of state constitutions in the real life United States, that is to say that caucus charters must be in compliance with the Bylaws of USASim. 21) The president shall be allowed to have 3 cabinet officials: Attorney General, Secretary of State and one additional member to be determined by the administration. The president shall also be allowed one press secretary. The duties of each cabinet member shall be spelled out in an executive order and shall henceforth be legally binding. 22) The Supreme Court shall be given the opportunity to write it's own regulations and operating procedure. Once writtten the rules shall be voted on as a package by the Senate and when passed shall be added as an amendment to the USA_Sim bylaws. 23) Subsidiary groups of USA_Sim shall include but may not be limited to the USA_Sim Executive Branch, USA_Sim Southern Caucus, USA_Sim Western caucus and the USA_Sim Civil Liberties caucus. All subsidiary groups shall have its own charter which defines the rules and whop the moderators are. 24) The USA_Sim Senate shall mirror the real life United States Senate. Independent or thrid party Senators shall not be allowed unless it's congruent to the real life United States Senate. However third party members shall be allowed to serve in all other beanches of sim government. This rule may be waived by a 3/4 vote of the party caucus after the caucus has atleast 30 Senators, not 30 members. 25) New members may claim an available Senate seat by doing the following: a post must be made in USA_Sim. The post must include the poster's first and last sim name, the party affliation, at least 3 state choices and a brief introduction. The poster must register a valid IP address and the title of the post should be the first state choice. The party whips or another Senator designated the PW shall be responsible for validating the claim and processing the information in a database in the main sim. Only one member may sit as a Senator per household or IP address. 26) The main sim of USA_Sim shall be unmoderated. Members must be allowed to view the members list, use the chatroom, participate in polls and add bookmarks. Other priviledges may be added at the discretion of the group owner.