Civil Rights Act
1st Session
S. ____
To provide remedies for violations of rights, privileges, and immunities of persons by government actors.
IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE
January 25, 2013
January 25, 2013
Mr. ROLAND of Texas introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Judiciary Committee.
A BILL
To provide remedies for violations of rights, privileges, and immunities of persons by government actors.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘Civil Rights Act of 2013′.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND AUTHORITY.
1. The Congress finds that it has comminatory and punitive powers over government actors, including:
a. Military personnel under U.S. Const. Article I Section 8 Clause 14.
b. Militia personnel under U.S. Const. Article I Section 8 Clause 16.
c. Civil officers, their subordinates and agents, of all branches and departments of the government of the United States under U.S. Const. Article II Section 4.
d. Civil officers, their subordinates and agents, of all branches, departments, and subdivisions of the governments of the States of United States under the amendment to the U.S. Const. proposed in 1866 and presumed ratified in 1868.
2. The Congress finds that it has comminatory and punitive powers over such government actors, expressed in the U.S. Constitution as “treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors”, includes:
a. Common law crimes established in the territory of what would become the United States as of 1787.
b. Offenses inconsistent with the duties of government actors, including offenses of the kind subject to court-martial under the Uniform Code of Military Justice as of the date of enactment hereof, such as:
1. Dereliction of duty, bribery, yielding to intimidation, or bias.
2. Insubordination, failure to obey a lawful order of a superior, or to comply with a lawful statute or regulation.
3. Perjury, fraud, or conduct unbecoming.
4. Abuse of power, tending to the infringement of the rights of any person.
3. The Congress finds that it has power, under U.S. Const. Article III Section 2 Clause 2, to establish jurisdictions for civil causes of action among private parties of diverse residency or citizenship in the courts of the United States.
SEC. 3. ENACTMENT AND REPEALS.
Statutes codified in 18 USC Chapter 13 and in 42 USC Chapter 21 are hereby amended as follows:
1. All offenses and remedies under these titles shall be equally applicable to government actors of both the United States and the States of the United States, except that impeachment and removal by Congress shall apply only to United States actors whose appointments are subject to congressional consent.
2. Prosecution of a criminal case in the courts of the United States shall be conducted by a private person appointed by a duly met grand jury who has not served as a government actor of the United States in the preceding year, unless no such person can be found, in which case a government actor may prosecute.
3. Prosecution of a civil case in the courts of the United States shall be conducted only by a private person who has not served as a government actor of the United States in the preceding six months.
4. Prevailing private prosecutions, criminal or civil, shall be entitled to reasonable damages, fees, and costs in an amount not less than the value equivalent to one terajoule of electric energy, for the trial and each level of appeal, payable from the assets of the losing level, branch, and department of government, United States or State.
5. The rights of persons the infringement of which shall provide a basis for a criminal or civil prosecution shall include, but not be limited to, the following:
a. All rights already established in the above titles.
b. Due process
1. General
1. Due notice of time, place, manner, parties, and subject of any proceeding with sufficient time to respond.
2. Fair hearing and decision on the legal merits, with redress for just grievances, including damages, property, or injunctive or declaratory relief.
3. Not to have just remedies made inaccessible or excessively difficult or costly.
4. Mandated testimony of witnesses.
5. Unimpeded access to courts, court filing, and grand juries, subject only to routine scheduling.
6. Direct presentation of complaints to a grand jury without the presence of any other government actor without the consent of the grand jury.
7. Standing to privately prosecute a public right without having been or expecting personal injury.
8. Not to be subject to retaliation.
2. Criminal trials:
1. Indictment by twelve members of a randomly selected grand jury of 23 who elect their foreperson, upon a finding that the court has jurisdiction and that there is sufficient evidence for a trial, except for persons subject to military or militia discipline.
2. Service as prosecutor upon receipt of an indictment by a grand jury, subject only to consolidation by the grand jury if more than one person seeks to prosecute the same offense.
3. Trial by a randomly selected jury of twelve in criminal cases for which the penalty is more than 90 days.
4. No excessive bail when there is little flight risk.
5. No excessive fines imposed.
6. No cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
7. Speedy and public trial before an impartial jury of the state and district previously defined by law, wherein the offense shall have been committed, and to have the location of commitment be deemed where there was concurrence of mens rea and actus reus.
8. Not to be twice prosecuted for the same offense or same facts under different jurisdictions.
9. To be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence, but not to have counsel or an attorney imposed on him without his consent.
10. Not to be compelled to be a witness against himself.
11. Not be disabled in the exercise, or deprived, of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, by unanimous verdict of a jury of twelve.
12. Unimpeded presentation of all evidence by the defendant, without being subject to a motion in limine.
13. Unimpeded presentation of all legal argument to the jury, up to the final instructions to the jury, except for argument on a motion in limine that cannot be made without disclosing evidence properly excluded.
14. Unimpeded presentation of alternative instructions to the jury.
15. Not to have a sentence that does not separately disable the exercise of the immunity, and order deprivation of it, within the scope of that disablement
3. Civil trials:
Trial by a randomly selected jury of twelve in which the amount at issue, including costs, exceeds the equivalent of at least 15.46875 troy ounces of pure silver.
4. Appeals
Appeal from a jury verdict only on a writ of error or habeas corpus, according to the rules of the common law in the United States as of 1787, unless the Constitution is amended to provide otherwise.
c. Nonauthority
1. Presumption of nonauthority for any claim to authority, to be strictly proved by an unbroken logical chain of derivation from a constitution.
2. Not to have any government actor exercise a power not delegated, regardless of whether one may be personally injured by such exercise.
3. Not to have government actors exercise powers on the pretext of being “necessary and proper” when they are not just to perform his official duties but to get a desired result beyond such duties.
4. To have delegated powers construed as narrowly, and rights, privileges, or immunities construed as broadly, as the language of the Constitution as meant and understood when ratified permits.
5. Priority docketing of all prerogative writs filed by a any person as demandant in the name of the people with a court of competent jurisdiction and served on the respondant, within three sederunt days, unless the respondant requires more, but not more than 20 calendar days, including but not limited to, demurral, quo warranto, habeas corpus, procedendo, mandamus, prohibito, certiorari, and scire facias, and to have default judgment even if no proof is presented or a hearing is not held.
6. Unimpeded and unpunished communications, including speech, press, and education, except such as instigate or direct a felony, misdemeanor, or tort.
7. Unimpeded assembly and exercise of rights in concert with others.
8. Unimpeded assembly as militia for organizing, training, and response to threats to public safety, subject only to direction by state militia officers during a call-up.
9. Unrestricted keeping and bearing of weapons, equipment, and supplies commonly used by military forces, or suitable for militia, subject only to court order of disablement for being a threat to oneself or others, or to the lawful orders of militia officers during a call-up.
10. Unimpeded and unpunished petition for redress of grievances.
11. Unimpeded devotion or practice of religion, not preferentially supported by public funds, that does not instigate or direct a felony, misdemeanor, or tort.
12. Exclusion of government actors from intrusion into one’s real property, body, or use of one’s personal property, for search, seizure, or for any other reason, without consent, a declared state of war or emergency threat to public, safety, a warrant supported by an affidavit of probable cause, and just compensation for any losses incurred, for each incident.
d. Supervision of government actors
1. Access to observation and recordation of any government proceeding except trial and grand jury deliberations or their equivalent, or deliberations on matters of security requiring secrecy.
2. Receipt of records of all proceedings, and accounting for all receipts, loans, debts, and expenditures, and reporting thereof, for eventual examination prior to an election in which the issues may be reviewed.
3. Access to all information about oneself, and either copies at cost of all documentation or to make one’s own copies using one’s own equipment.
f. Other
1. Association and contract to do things not unlawful, including practice of a profession or occupation, marriage, procreation, and acceptance or denial of medical prevention or treatment, except prevention of contagious diseases.
2. Formation, conduct, and revision or dissolution of corporations, partnerships, and other trusts, in which settlor, trustee, and beneficiary are distinct persons who may not be impeded or penalized from directly appearing in any court in such capacities.
3. Not to have some accorded special privileges or protections that favor them over the rest of the people, in ways not essential to the performance of public duties.
4. Travel within, to, and from the United States and any State, territory or locality.
5. Not to be removed from the location of one’s birth or lawful residence, or impeded from returning thereto.
6. Not to be enslaved or submitted to peonage except as punishment for a crime, but subject to militia, jury, witness, and other public duty.
7. Not to be impeded or punished for voting if one is a citizen and resident on grounds of race, color, creed, previous servitude, gender, age 18 or above, or failure to pay a tax.
8. Custody and care of close relatives who are non sui juris.
9. Not to be neglected or abused while in custody.
10. Not to be denied any right, privilege, or immunity for failure to have or present a name or other form of identification.
11. Not to be deported without proof that one has not been born or naturalized as a citizen, unless one is born to a person not subject to the allegiance of the United States, such as a foreign diplomat or an invader.
g. The foregoing list is not exhaustive, and further rights, privileges, and immunities are to be found in the historical record. The rule of expressio unius est exclusio alterius shall not be applied.
SEC. 4. REMEDIATION.
Persons whose rights have been violated within the preceding 20 years from enactment hereof shall have standing to seek relief under its provisions.
SEC. 5. TRANSITIONAL.
Older victims of past abuse shall have their cases dockets ahead of younger persons to allow for them to receive redress while they remain alive.
END.
