I am beginning a project to create a better state constitution. I call it “open-source” as I don’t imagine any one person or top-down organization capable of creating a good constitution any more than I imagine one individual or top-down organization capable of creating honest operating systems.
Of course creation by committee of political appointees or by the masses can have poor or nonexistent results too. Therefore I open this project with the open-source title acknowledging that the results will benefit from having every word and phrase open to suggestions, additions and modifications as it goes.
I begin with an offer to consider inputs that are consistent with the spirit and intent that I establish with this first page.
Note there is a Constitution open-source PAGE on the right-hand sidebar that will reflect any updates and changes I have made. This post will not be updated.
Constitution for The Republic Of Idaho
Preamble
Neither the majority nor government need protection from the individual or the minority. The purpose of this constitution and all subordinate laws is to protect individual life, liberty, property and pursuit of happiness. Prior state and federal constitutions either facilitated despotism or were powerless to prevent it. While there is no substitute for a knowledgeable and diligent populace, this foundation attempts to provide tools for the people to restrain political power to its appropriate bounds.
Article I Declaration of rights and bounds
Section 1 Inalienable rights of man
a) Throughout this document, man, person and people are used in their classic sense to include every individual living human, be they man, woman or child.
b) Free shall be used throughout as in defined in Webster’s 1828 Dictionary: unobstructed, unrestrained, unreserved, unencumbered, liberated, etcetera. It shall not imply nor enable the taking of property or labor from one to give to another.
c) All men are by nature free, endowed with equal rights to life, liberty, property, the pursuit of happiness and the right to defend those attributes.
d) It is to the benefit of men to organize to strengthen their defensive capacities. This is the purpose and the limit of the government herein defined, and of any just government.
e) Thus, government is subordinate to man and cannot by force or fraud infringe on the rights of the individual except when, and to the extent that the individual trespasses on another man’s rights.
Section 2 Political Power
a) There is no limit to the mischief of political man when unanswerable directly to the individuals of the realm. Therefore the highest political authority is the most local political agency.
b) Thus any organization of states is subordinate to the state within that state’s boundaries. State organizations are subordinate to county organizations within that county’s boundaries. County organizations are subordinate within city or township boundaries.
c) Enforcement of any laws or regulations must be done with the support or endorsement of the most local elected law enforcement agency.
d) Legislators voting for laws or regulations that would be contrary to this constitution and the natural rights of man are personally liable for that breach of their sworn contract to support this constitution.
e) Any laws contrary to this constitution are null and void.
f) Any elected official shall have his authority suspended by petition of 5% of the electors until his authority or impeachment is confirmed by majority vote in an open election.
Section 3 Religious Liberty
a) It is in the nature of man to create homogeneous religious and social communities. Whether geographical, philosophical or both, these communities and belief systems shall be free of political interference for or against, and protected by government as are all other natural human liberties.