I’ll just drop this last one here, since it’s pretty thorough:

https://www.vacourts.gov/courts/scv/call_for_comment/draft_shall_rules_revisions.pdf

Is there no word y’all won’t redefine?

Shall has a very specific meaning when written into law.

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Getting back to the original topic. What exactly did I set up in those 7,358 words.

As with most modern State Constitutions, the Declaration (or Bill) of Rights leads off, rather than being tacked on as an afterthought. More robust than the U.S. version.

State Legislature is set up relatively the same as Congress, except in two key aspects. There is no Lieutenant Governor, and the Senate elects its own President. The State Legislature is able to override the Governor’s veto with a simple majority of the total membership of both houses, rather than a 2/3rd’s majority of members present. In both the United States in General and the several States, the Executive has become much more powerful the Legislature and dialing back the veto would shift the balance of power towards the Legislature. Additionally, the administrative state has gained much power due to the inability of Congress or the State Legislatures to actually legislate. More effective and specific legislation would reduce the discretion and power of the administrative state.

No major changes on the Executive overall. But I do pull the Attorney General out of the Executive. Shenanigans at the Federal level by both parties sufficiently illustrate the virtue of creating a separate, elected, Attorney General.

The Judiciary is where I set brevity aside and detail the structure and jurisdiction. I take the virtue of the Federal system, California, Florida and a few others and eschew the total cluster ■■■■■, most notably, but not limited to, New York, Texas and Pennsylvania. It should be simple to set up a well-structured, efficient judiciary, but most States just can’t seem to figure it out, so I did the hard work for them. Florida and the Federal Government both use a four-layer structure, (i.e., Supreme Court, intermediate appellate court, a court of general jurisdiction and a court of limited jurisdiction). I mirror that logical structure.

As for local government, I pointedly kept that section VERY short. Counties and cities should have maximum leeway to go their own way.

Oaths are self-evident.

And the amendment structure is kept somewhat difficult, to prevent, well, stupid amendments (i.e., pig crates, etc.).

The US Constitution has 4440 words. Seems counter-intuitive that a State constitution would have twice as many.

Until you understand that states are more important than central government.

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“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected.

The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State."

Additionally, the Tenth Amendment declares:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people.
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Again, much of the difference is in the judiciary section and we have had 235 years to evaluate the good and the bad of judiciaries. The United States Judiciary did not reach its basic final structure until 1911 and the Supreme Court did not get predominantly discretionary jurisdiction until 1925. And there have been other tweaks, such as United States Magistrate Judges and United States Bankruptcy Judges since then. We know what works and what doesn’t, so unlike in 1787, it is a much better proposition to just detail out the structure of the Judiciary than to leave it to chance. And that is what primarily extends this Constitution in length beyond the United States Constitution.

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You think the judiciary works now?

STRUCTURALLY, it works very well, other than needing new judgeships in certain districts

Which is all I am addressing with this amendment.

The quality of the Judges appointed is an entirely different matter.

:rofl: The structure is why you have the judges you have. The judiciary in this country is out of control.

There are five methods of appointment.

Executive appointment with Senate confirmation
Legislative election (fairly rare)
Assisted executive appointment
Partisan election
Non-partisan election

Assisted executive appointment generally delivers the best quality of judges, which is why I chose that method.

All the other methods deliver decidedly mixed bags. But the Constitution mandates Executive appointment with Senate confirmation so we are stuck with that flawed method.

They have far, far too much power and are far too arrogant.