L. Citizens' Fundamental Rights
The General Welfare: A Legislative Agenda for a Better American Future
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
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Fundamental Rights
The Corporate Democracy Act.
This Act shall apply to all corporations, limited liability companies, trusts and other similar entities ("corporations") with securities registered under the Securities Act or traded on a national exchange.
All corporations subject to this Act shall provide for significant employee voice in corporate governance.
Any of the following systems shall be acceptable under the terms of this Act, but corporations may institute alternative systems that fulfill the goals and policy of this Act, if such systems are approved by both the SEC. The burden of proof to justify an alternative system shall be upon the corporation proposing it.
Employees shall elect, on a basis of one person one vote, representatives to the board of directors of the corporation. Employee-elected directors shall amount in number to at least one less than half the total number of directors on the board and shall have the same rights and obligations as other directors.
Employees shall elect representatives who shall meet with management periodically. Corporate directors and managers may define the units that shall elect such representatives and the method of election, providing that such definitions and methods are made in good faith in order to effect the goal of representing employee views in corporate decision-making. The corporation shall take no decision expected to diminish the number, pay or working quality of jobs without consulting with the relevant representatives. If the representatives disagree with the proposed decisions, they shall have the right to veto them for a period of one year.
Employees shall hold a majority of the voting shares of the corporation. The shareholders shall elect at least one half the directors on the basis of one share one vote, but with no more than one vote per shareholder; provided, however, that non-human shareholders shall have the option of passing their votes through to their own shareholders or beneficiaries, and those shareholders shall be entitled to vote on the same terms. A given human shareholder may vote only once even if he or she is a beneficiary or shareholder of multiple non-human shareholders. Any corporation instituting such a system shall demonstrate that it has in place an effective system to prevent improper over-voting.
Employees shall have the right to vote for or against the CEO and other Officers of the corporation at least once every two years. If a majority of the voting employees vote against a serving CEO or officer, such CEO or Officer shall remain in office for no more than six months after such vote, and shall be entitled to no salary, bonus, payment in lieu of salary or other payment reflecting service or obligations accrued after such six month date or in consideration of work thereafter, regardless of any contractual provision to the contrary. No CEO or officer employment contract shall be binding or valid unless approved by a majority of the voting employees after full disclosure and explanation of its terms.
A system similar to the systems used by corporations subject to the German Works Council law.
The SEC shall issue rules or regulations specifying terms that satisfy it and enforcement procedures.
The SEC may promulgate appropriate regulations permitting companies to restrict the voting rights of temporary, part-time or short term employees, but no employee who has been employed by the company for more than 250 calendar days, whether or not continuous, or who works more than 20 hours per week on a regular basis, shall be denied the right to vote.
The SEC, or any employee injured in violation of this Act, may sue to enforce it by injunction or damages.
The Militia Act.
A well-ordered militia being essential to the preservation of liberty,
Every person owning or possessing arms within the jurisdiction of the United States shall register as an arms owner and member of the militia.
Any person bearing or carrying arms shall carry proof that he or she is a registered arms owner.
Each state shall determine the terms on which it registers gun owners and the proof it shall provide registered gun owners of such registration, provided however, that no registration shall be valid for purposes of this Act unless it includes the correct name and current address of the registered individual. A notation on the registrant's driver's license will be sufficient.
Every registered gun owner shall be deemed a member of the National Guard, subject to being called up for training on the same terms as other national guardsmen, and for national service in times of war or overseas conflict.
No ammunition shall be sold in the United States without forensic characteristics permitting it to be traced.
All ammunition produced or sold in the United States shall be entered in the National Ammunition Database.
No person shall sell ammunition by means of interstate commerce or in a manner than may affect interstate commerce directly on indirectly, or any ammunition that has crossed state lines or which the seller has a reasonable basis to believe might cross state lines in the future, except ammunition entered in the National Ammunition Database sold to a registered gun owner.
Sellers of ammunition are strictly liable for violation of this provision unless they
(1) verify the buyer's registration by viewing and photocopying the buyer's appropriately notated driver's license or other registration document and
(2) enter the forensic identifier of the ammunition and the identity and registration number of the buyer into the National Ammunition Database at or prior to the time of sale.
Sale of ammunition in violation of this provision shall be a felony.
Possession of ammunition by any person who is not a registered gun owner or is not the registered owner of such ammunition shall be a felony.
This Act may be enforced by private action against any manufacturer, wholesale or retail seller or buyer of any arms or ammunition manufactured, sold, possessed or used in violation of this Act, by any person or class of persons damaged, directly or indirectly, by such arms or ammunition, regardless of whether the manufacture or sale is a cause of the damage.
This Act shall not preempt any additional regulation of the militia or gun owners that any state shall enact, provided that such regulation does not conflict with this Act.
The Religious Liberty and Justice Act.
Whereas, marriage is a sacrament according to the tenets of many religions, and
Whereas, American religions disagree on the substance, requirements and meaning of marriage, and
Whereas, the American tradition is, and the Constitution of the United States requires, that no law shall establish a religion or interfere with the practice thereof,
Whereas, every American is entitled to the equal protection of the laws,
Whereas, this nation is founded on the principle that every person is endowed by his or her Creator with certain unalienable rights, regardless of sexual orientation, and
Whereas, the right to form a family and to enter into civil union is a fundamental right
now therefore be it enacted:
The right to enter into civil union is a fundamental human right and a privilege of American citizenship.
No agency of the Unites States or any state shall discriminate among religious marriages based on the race, religion, gender or sexual orientation of the participants, or recognize or refuse to recognize some but not all religious marriages on such basis.
No agency of the United States or any state shall deny to any citizens of the United States the equal protection of the laws by denying such persons the right to enter into civil union based on race, religion, gender or sexual orientation.
No agency of the United States or any state shall deny to any citizen of the United States the equal protection of the laws by denying such person the right to adopt or otherwise create or maintain a family based on race, religion, gender or sexual orientation.
Every reference in the laws of the United States and any state to "marriage" or "married persons" shall be understood to include "civil union" or "persons in a civil union."
Union Reorganization Act.
We freely allow capital to unite and organize in order to collectively bargain through the device known as a "corporation." In order to assure that the benefits of growth go to employees as well as investors and top management, we must allow employees to collectively bargain as well. This is impossible under current law, which allows employees to organize only workplaces -- and then allows managers to simply shift investment to unorganized workplaces. Instead, we ought to allow employees to organize across industries with something approaching the flexibility permitted to employers. Clever unions will imitate the more successful European system of organizing industries rather than individual factories, or, perhaps, find a still better method.
Unions may choose to define the bargaining unit in their discretion.
The NLRB shall promote, to the best of its ability without coercion, industry-wide bargaining wherever possible.
The Internet Privacy and Private Property Protection Act.
Marketers, website, search engine and ISP providers have massively expropriated the private property of American citizens, seizing space on their computers in order to track their movements, activities, purchases and opinions. This novel form of trespass and invasion of privacy has not been adequately policed by the courts, which have failed to enforce basic property rights against physical and metaphorical invasion. This statute seeks to restore the basic common law structure and make it enforceable in effective Federal actions. It does NOT restrict employers from restricting or monitoring employee use of employer-owned computers.
I. Restoration of Property Rights in Computers
Computers, including their hard-drives, are the property of the individual who or entity which owns them.
Placing a program or data on the property of another, or collecting information about the contents thereof, without the owner's explicit consent is trespass. Each placement of such program or data, or accessing of it, is a separate trespass.
Any person that trespasses on the hard-drive of another shall be liable for damages in the amount of $100 per infraction or actual damages, whichever is greater.
II. Restoration of Property Rights in Personal Information
Individual human beings, but not entities, have a property right in information about themselves, including but not limited to information about their habits, thoughts, purchasing, consumption and viewing patterns, and genetic makeup ("personal information").
No person shall appropriate another person's personal information without agreement from the subject of and owner of the information.
Any person that misappropriates personal information shall be liable for damages in the amount of $100 per infraction, or actual damages, whichever is greater. If the subject of such information is a Public Figure within the meaning of US libel law, it shall be a complete defense to any action under this title that the appropriated information was used solely for purposes of public debate, was not misrepresented and is a matter of public concern.
III. Prevention of Trespass on Private Property (hard drives)
No computer owner or information owner's consent to any "cookie" or other Internet tracking device capable of tracking and communicating information about any computer user's downloads or inputs or reading any part of such user's hard-drive or memory, shall be effective, unless the cookie or other Internet tracking device clearly informs the computer user of the specific information it transmits prior to each transmission thereof or access thereto.
Such disclosure must be in a form that is reasonably designed to inform an average user of
the information that is being transmitted,
the uses to which it will be put, and
the inferences that can be drawn from such information combined with other information that is, or may be, in the possession of the recipient.
Any person that appropriates information, or causes information to be transmitted, or receives information so transmitted, in violation of this statute shall be liable for damages in the amount of $100 per infraction, or actual damages, whichever is greater.
IV. Expectation of Privacy
All citizens using e-mail transmitted over means of interstate commerce are entitled to a reasonable expectation of privacy in e-mail sent from a password-protected account to a specific individual.
Employees have a reasonable expectation of privacy against their employer in e-mail they send using employer-owned computers or computer networks, if the e-mail is sent using a non-employer, personal, password-protected e-mail account.
Intercepting or reading a citizen's e-mail without the consent of the sender shall be subject to the same restrictions and the same penalties as intercepting or reading first class US mail.
Addressees of e-mail shall have the same rights to monitor, delete, retain, compile, scan, forward, publish or otherwise use e-mail as they would have with respect to material received by US mail.
Mere transmission or forwarding of an e-mail without electronic or human monitoring of the content thereof shall not be deemed "reading or intercepting."
Electronic monitoring or suppression of e-mail for viruses or spam, if such monitoring or suppression is with the knowledge and consent of either sender or recipient, shall not be deemed "reading or intercepting."
Computer network operators may keep a copy of e-mail transmitted over their network for a reasonable time not to exceed 6 months, for the purpose of identifying and eliminating viruses or similar problems, provided that they have in place a reasonably secure system to prevent monitoring, scanning, duplicating or reading e-mail for other purposes.
This provision shall not apply to e-mail sent by or on behalf of a corporation, governmental agency or other non-citizen, or to e-mail sent by a citizen using an e-mail account belonging to his or her employer to which the user has access only for the employer's purposes.