[Discussion] Citizenship Act (October 2018)

[Cormac]

(3) In addition to the oath, the application must include the applicant’s:

Weird formatting issue where the apostrophe should be in "applicant's."

c. has been declared a security threat by the Vice Delegate on behalf of the Council of Lazarene Security

Again, I believe this to be unconstitutional. Mandate 12 allows no role for the Vice Delegate or Council on Lazarene Security in admitting citizens; it's entirely the Delegate's prerogative to admit citizens or not, except that Mandate 12 allows for an appeals process in the event of rejection. So I really won't be able to vote for this given I believe it's unconstitutional.

(6) The Assembly may, by a two-thirds vote, issue a waiver in instances where the applicant has not met the criteria;

Why did you retain this when most people (7-5, ~54%) preferred letting the Delegate grant the waiver? Again, I think this might be unconstitutional, and moreover I think it's just a bad idea that will in all likelihood deprive us of active contributors to our community, like Milograd. There's no way he's going to get a 2/3 vote waiver to be here and I don't see any reason he should need one. I don't understand the fixation on an Assembly waiver but I'm against it.

(7) The Vice Delegate has one week to evaluate an applicant to determine if they represent a security threat to the region or government of Lazarus.

Again, the Vice Delegate has no constitutional role in the citizenship application process.

(8) The Assembly may, within two weeks of an approval, initiate proceedings to overturn the Delegate’s approval of an application by a two-thirds vote.

Again, the Assembly doesn't have the constitutional power to overturn a citizenship approval, only a rejection. We've covered this already, so I won't go into more detail.

d. Upon the conclusion of a citizen’s leave, the Delegate shall confirm that the citizen’s nation in Lazarus continues to exist. Should it have ceased-to-exist or voluntarily relocated, the citizen shall have their citizenship promptly removed.

Weird formatting issue with the apostrophe again.

'Forum' is defined as a public infrastructure located at ‘https://nslazarus.com/index.php'.

Weird formatting issue again.

'Lazarus' is defined as the NationStates region of the same name, located at ‘https://www.nationstates.net/region=lazarus'.

And again here.

Unfortunately, if the issues I believe to be unconstitutional and simply a bad idea remain in this bill, I'm going to have to vote it against it, and I would encourage others to do the same. Mandate 12 gives citizenship power to the Delegate for a reason, and if you want to change that it should be done as an amendment to Mandate 12. Constitutional laws aren't supposed to either contradict or amend Mandate 12, which is what several of these provisions are doing, and it's a shame that we're tying these more controversial bits to what is otherwise a good bill. I don't see this achieving the 3/4 threshold needed if those controversial provisions remain in place.