My purpose here is to address this with a draft of a proposed charter for reining in the wildly out of control elements of "government" that have gone universally off the rails as the people serving in the various roles have so very clearly forgotten that they are indeed trustee-administrators, and not masters of the proletariat.
Only time will tell. Let us pray we make the right choice.
And now, the Charter. Be well, God bless America and all Americans. Until next time, please accept my best wishes.
Preamble
Civil society exists to secure the equal rights of persons: life, liberty, bodily integrity, property, reputation, family, lawful association, and peaceful participation in common life.
Its purpose is not to excuse wrongdoing, disguise injustice with pleasant language, or compel those harmed to bear injuries wrongfully imposed upon them. Its duty is to identify rights violations honestly; protect persons from continuing harm; restore what can be restored; provide full practicable remedy for proven injury; and impose only those consequences authorized by law upon persons proved responsible.
This Charter implements and shall be construed consistently with the canonical principles of Law and Crime, as stated in the publicly accessible and version-controlled canonical text designated by law. That text may guide interpretation but does not independently create an offense, duty, remedy, punishment, immunity, or coercive power. Where the canonical text conflicts with this Charter or with enacted law consistent with this Charter, this Charter controls.
A revision to the canonical text has no legal effect unless adopted through the amendment process required by Article X of this Charter. No person may be bound by a change to an incorporated text that was not publicly accessible and legally effective before the conduct or deprivation at issue.
Justice requires both firmness and rigor. Firmness without rigor becomes tyranny. Rigor without firmness becomes impotence. A just legal order requires both.
Article I — Supremacy of Law
Section 1. Law above policy
Law governs policy. Policy may administer duties and powers established by law, but may not independently create, enlarge, excuse, evade, or suspend legal authority.
No policy, manual, guidance, custom, emergency directive, administrative interpretation, funding condition, prosecutorial practice, or official order may create an offense, duty, penalty, deprivation, immunity, exception, or coercive power not expressly authorized by public law.
Where policy conflicts with law, the policy is void to the extent of the conflict.
Section 2. Public and prospective law
No person shall be punished, deprived, disqualified, publicly designated, or subjected to coercive state power except under public law that was accessible and in force before the conduct or event at issue.
Secret law creates no obligation and authorizes no deprivation.
The legislature may prospectively enact, amend, or repeal criminal offenses, civil claims, remedies, procedures, and administrative authorities, subject to the rights and limitations established by this Charter. No law may impose retroactive criminal punishment, retroactive punitive deprivation, or retroactive enlargement of liability.
Section 3. Definiteness and construction
A law authorizing criminal punishment, coercive deprivation, or limitation of a protected right must state its scope with sufficient clarity to provide fair notice and permit principled judicial review.
A genuine and material ambiguity in a penal provision, grant of coercive authority, exception to a protected right, or authorization of deprivation shall be resolved against expansion of state power.
A tribunal may not avoid this rule by relying on policy preference, administrative practice, asserted necessity, or a construction that a person of ordinary understanding could not reasonably have anticipated from the publicly accessible text.
No ambiguity shall be construed to create a criminal offense or coercively enforceable duty, enlarge governmental power, increase a sanction or create an enhancement, reduce a procedural protection, or authorize deprivation of liberty, property, status, or lawful participation in civil life.
Section 4. Interpretation
The text of enacted law controls. Terms shall be construed according to their public meaning at the time of enactment, read in their full statutory and constitutional context.
Courts shall apply enacted law faithfully to new facts, instruments, technologies, methods, institutions, and social practices. Novelty of method neither creates a new state power nor defeats an existing legal protection.
No tribunal may create liability by resemblance alone. A novel method may support liability only if it satisfies every required element of an existing offense, civil claim, or other legal authorization.
Section 5. Required findings for coercive action
Before imposing or affirming a criminal sanction, punitive deprivation, civil coercive remedy, public designation, or other coercive exercise of state power, a tribunal shall answer in writing:
First: Which protected right or legally cognizable interest is alleged to have been violated?
Second: Which canonical category or categories—Crime, Tort, or Equity—govern the asserted claim, and which protected interest and alleged mode of injury do they address?
Third: Which specific pre-existing public law, listed offense, civil claim, warrant authority, or other legal authorization permits the proceeding or action?
Fourth: What facts and admissible evidence establish each required element or legal condition?
Fifth: What mental state, duty, causal connection, justification, defense, privilege, or exemption is required, and what facts establish or defeat each?
Sixth: What remedy, sanction, scope of deprivation, duration, and review process are expressly authorized by law?
Seventh: What provision of this Charter prohibits expansion of authority beyond those findings?
A tribunal shall identify material contrary evidence, resolve material factual disputes, and state the burden and standard of proof applied.
No tribunal may substitute resemblance, moral disapproval, claimed social utility, novelty, danger, popularity, administrative convenience, asserted necessity, or generalized public concern for any required element or legal authorization.
Section 6. Consequence of invalidity
A coercive judgment or order that does not contain findings sufficient to answer the questions required by Section 5 is invalid to the extent the missing findings are material to the asserted authority, deprivation, sanction, or remedy. A law, rule, order, sanction, or coercive act that otherwise violates this Charter is invalid to the extent of the violation.
A person subjected to an invalid deprivation is entitled to timely access to an impartial tribunal for declaratory, injunctive, corrective, restorative, compensatory, or other relief authorized by law, and to immediate cessation of an ongoing deprivation that lacks lawful authority.
No final judgment shall be disturbed solely because of a nonmaterial procedural defect. A judgment, order, sanction, or deprivation shall be vacated, modified, or otherwise remedied where the violation materially affected the asserted authority, the fairness of the proceeding, the finding of liability, the scope of deprivation, or the remedy imposed.
Article II — Protected Rights and Legal Claims
Section 1. Protected interests
The following are protected interests recognized by this Charter:
Life and bodily integrity.
Liberty, security, and freedom from unlawful restraint.
Property, contract, livelihood, and lawful commerce.
Reputation and freedom from knowing false accusation.
Family relationships and lawful association.
Equal legal status and peaceful participation in civil life.
Fair process and freedom from coercive deprivation without legal authority.
These protected interests guide interpretation of law, classification of injury, and selection of lawful remedies. They do not independently create a criminal offense, punitive sanction, or coercive power.
Section 2. Canonical legal categories
The exclusive canonical categories of legally cognizable claim under this Charter are Crime, Tort, and Equity.
Crime concerns conduct or omission that, before it occurs, is defined by public law as a listed offense. Crime may authorize criminal punishment, punitive deprivation, or another coercive sanction only when every element of the listed offense, including the required mental state and causal connection, is proved under the burden of proof established by law.
Tort concerns a wrongful act or omission causing legally cognizable injury to another person's protected interests. Tort may authorize restoration, restitution, compensation, declaratory relief, and other civil remedies authorized by law. Tort does not itself authorize criminal punishment or punitive deprivation.
Equity concerns a legally cognizable claim for relief where a remedy at law is inadequate to prevent, correct, secure, or restore a proven injury. Equity may authorize injunction, specific performance, rescission, reformation, restitution, accounting, constructive trust, correction of records, protective order, or other equitable remedy authorized by law. Equity does not itself authorize criminal punishment or punitive deprivation.
A single course of conduct may give rise to claims in more than one canonical category. The availability, elements, burden of proof, defenses, remedies, and procedures of each claim shall be determined independently under pre-existing public law.
A criminal offense, tort claim, equitable claim, remedy, or sanction exists only where authorized by law. No claim may be granted unless its required elements have been proved under the applicable burden of proof. No remedy or sanction may be imposed unless authorized by law and supported by the findings required for the claim.
Section 3. Legislative authority and limits
The legislative power consists solely of the authority to enact general, public, prospective laws within the limits of this Charter. The legislature may define civil claims, criminal offenses, duties, defenses, remedies, procedures, aggravating factors, and sanctions only by legislation adopted through the constitutionally prescribed public process.
Every enactment creating or enlarging a criminal offense, coercively enforceable duty, punitive deprivation, civil penalty, sentence enhancement, disqualification, forfeiture, surveillance authority, search authority, detention authority, or other coercive state power shall state with reasonable specificity:
First: The protected interest to be secured or the specific public purpose authorized by this Charter.
Second: The conduct, omission, condition, or result regulated.
Third: Each required element of liability or authority.
Fourth: The required mental state, if liability is punitive or criminal.
Fifth: The required causal connection where harm is an element.
Sixth: The applicable burden and standard of proof.
Seventh: The available defenses, justifications, exemptions, or privileges.
Eighth: The authorized remedy, sanction, scope, duration, and review procedure.
Ninth: The public official, court, or institution authorized to act.
Tenth: The effective date and prospective application of the enactment.
Every bill creating, enlarging, or authorizing coercive state power shall contain a clear title stating its subject and principal legal effect. No such power may be enacted through a provision whose subject is materially concealed, unrelated to the bill's stated purpose, or unavailable for meaningful public review before enactment.
No law may delegate to an executive officer, agency, tribunal, private entity, professional body, or other person the power to define criminal conduct, create coercively enforceable duties, determine the elements of an offense, prescribe a punitive sanction, or enlarge a deprivation beyond the limits expressly stated by enacted law.
The legislature may authorize agencies to adopt administrative rules only where the enabling law defines the agency's subject matter, purpose, boundaries, procedures, and available remedies with sufficient specificity to permit judicial review. An administrative rule may regulate the means of carrying out a lawful duty, but may not independently create an offense, punitive sanction, coercive deprivation, immunity, or exception unless the legislature has expressly identified the rulemaking subject, legal consequence, and applicable limit.
No enactment may impose retroactive criminal punishment, retroactive punitive deprivation, retroactive sentence enhancement, retroactive enlargement of legal duty, or retroactive elimination of a vested defense, claim, remedy, or procedural protection.
A law inconsistent with a protected right, requirement of legality, due process, equal application, proportionality, or another limitation established by this Charter is void to the extent of the inconsistency. Every person affected by such a law is entitled to timely judicial review and to remedies authorized by law for an unlawful deprivation.
Legislation shall be enacted in public, published in accessible form before taking effect, and identified by a stable citation. No person may be bound by a legal text, incorporated standard, rule, schedule, or penalty provision that was not reasonably accessible before the conduct or deprivation at issue.
Article III — Legality, Liability, and Causation
Section 1. Listed offense
"Listed offense" means conduct or omission expressly prohibited by a public law enacted before the conduct occurred, which states the prohibited conduct or result, each required element, the required mental state, the applicable burden of proof, any defense or justification recognized by law, and the authorized range of sanctions.
Criminal punishment, punitive deprivation, or a sentence enhancement may be imposed only upon proof of every required element of a listed offense under the burden of proof required by law.
Section 2. Mental state
No person shall be held criminally responsible unless the prosecution proves the mental state required by the applicable offense.
Where an offense does not specify a mental state, no criminal liability may be imposed without proof that the person acted at least recklessly with respect to each material element, unless the legislature expressly and constitutionally provides otherwise.
A person's hardship, poverty, abuse, neglect, temptation, cultural environment, or social condition may be relevant to proof, culpability, mitigation, or rehabilitation. Such conditions do not by themselves excuse a deliberate violation of another person's rights.
Section 3. Omission liability
No person shall be criminally liable for an omission unless a clear legal duty required the omitted act; the duty arose from enacted law, a legally recognized custodial or status relationship, voluntary assumption of care, creation of a peril, contract, or another public legal source; the person knew or reasonably should have known the facts giving rise to the duty; the person had a reasonable ability to perform the required act; and the omission materially and foreseeably caused the harm required by the offense.
Section 4. Causation
"Cause in fact" means that the harm would not have occurred when it did but for the conduct at issue. Where two or more independent acts were each sufficient to cause the harm, each may be treated as a factual cause.
"Legal cause" means a factual cause whose contribution to the harm was not so remote, abnormal, or interrupted by an independent superseding cause as to make liability unjust under the applicable law.
A result-based offense requires proof that the accused acted with the mental state required by law with respect to the prohibited result.
Section 5. Clear duty
"Clear duty" means an obligation established by public law, a valid rule expressly authorized by public law, or a published and sufficiently definite professional standard incorporated by law and accessible before the conduct in question.
Section 6. Authorized sanction
"Authorized sanction" means a penalty, remedy, disqualification, or other consequence expressly provided by public law and applicable at the time of the conduct or adjudicated violation.
A sanction not authorized by law is void.
Section 7. Protection against multiple criminal punishment
No person shall be twice placed in jeopardy of criminal punishment for the same offense arising from the same conduct.
Where a single course of conduct violates more than one listed offense, criminal punishment may be imposed only for the offense or offenses expressly authorized by law to be punished separately for that conduct. Absent express legislative authorization of separate punishment, the person shall be punished under the offense carrying the greatest authorized sanction, and not cumulatively under overlapping offenses arising from the same act.
This Section does not bar a civil, equitable, or administrative proceeding arising from the same conduct as a criminal proceeding. It does not bar retrial after a mistrial declared upon the accused’s request or upon a judicial finding of manifest necessity, or after reversal of a conviction upon the convicted person’s successful appeal, except that a final acquittal may not be retried. A final judgment procured by fraud upon the tribunal may be subject to lawful civil, equitable, or disciplinary relief, but fraud shall not authorize a second criminal prosecution after a final acquittal.
Article IV — Remedy, Restoration, and Proportionality
Section 1. Full practicable restoration
"Full practicable restoration" means each remedy reasonably capable of correcting, compensating, securing, or preventing recurrence of proven harm, including restoration of liberty, status, or legal standing; correction or expungement of false or unlawful records; return of property and disgorgement of wrongful gains; restitution and compensation for proven loss; protective orders and lawful preventive measures; equitable relief; and lawful disqualification from positions of trust.
A remedy must be connected to the proven injury, authorized by law, proportionate to the need for correction or protection, and subject to fair process.
Section 2. Irreparable harm
"Irreparable harm" means a legally cognizable injury that cannot be substantially restored through return of property, payment, correction, treatment, protection, or another available remedy.
It may include death, permanent bodily impairment, grave sexual violation, or a substantial wrongful deprivation of liberty that cannot be returned.
The irreparability of harm may inform lawful restoration, protection, and any aggravating factor expressly established by law. It does not independently create an offense, enhancement, or punishment.
Section 3. Proportionality
A sanction shall be proportionate to the gravity of the proven violation, the culpability of the responsible person, the harm caused, threatened, or intended, the need for restoration and protection, and any aggravating or mitigating circumstance expressly provided by law.
No sanction may be imposed merely to inflict suffering, humiliation, degradation, or despair.
Section 4. Public accountability
"Public accountability" means accurate and necessary disclosure of an adjudicated finding through means expressly authorized by law for correction, protection, or prevention.
It does not include falsehood, collective punishment, degradation, or punishment of persons not responsible for the violation.
A public-accountability measure must be no broader in audience, duration, or content than reasonably necessary to serve its lawful purpose.
Article V — Due Process
Section 1. Condition of justified severity
No criminal sanction, civil deprivation, public designation, or coercive consequence may be imposed on suspicion, ideological preference, public hysteria, personal animus, political pressure, or administrative convenience.
The more severe, enduring, or irreversible the deprivation, the more exacting the procedural protections must be.
Section 2. Required protections
A person subject to criminal accusation or coercive deprivation is entitled to notice of the alleged legal basis and factual accusation; a meaningful opportunity to be heard; impartial decision-makers; representation by counsel where liberty or comparable fundamental interests are at stake, including publicly funded counsel for a person unable to obtain competent representation; disclosure of material exculpatory and inculpatory evidence, subject only to narrowly tailored protective procedures; adversarial testing of material evidence; the burden and standard of proof required by law; a reasoned written decision complying with Article I, Section 5, identifying the governing law, findings of fact, material contrary evidence, applicable burden and standard of proof, legal conclusions, and remedy or sanction; and independent review where required by law.
Section 3. Trial by jury
A person accused of an offense authorizing loss of liberty shall be entitled to trial by an impartial jury of the community, unless that right is knowingly, voluntarily, and expressly waived by the accused.
The jury shall determine disputed questions of fact, including the existence of each required element and mental state, under instructions on the applicable law given by the presiding tribunal. A conviction for an offense authorizing loss of liberty requires a unanimous verdict of the jury. The tribunal retains responsibility for the findings required by Article I, Section 5, and for questions of law reserved to it.
The legislature may authorize trial without jury for an offense that does not authorize loss of liberty and may establish procedures for jury selection and size, provided that those procedures preserve an impartial jury, public and fair proceedings, and the unanimous-verdict requirement of this Section.
Section 4. False accusations and official misconduct
An acquittal, unsuccessful prosecution, dismissal, or later exoneration does not alone establish misconduct by an accuser, officer, prosecutor, analyst, or judge.
But knowingly false accusation, perjury, fabricated evidence, deliberate suppression of material exculpatory evidence, coercion of false testimony, malicious prosecution, and knowing abuse of public power may be punished or remedied where every element of a listed offense or authorized claim is proved.
A person responsible for a knowing materially false accusation may be required, where authorized and proportionate, to provide correction to affected audiences, restitution, compensation for proven loss, disgorgement of wrongful gain, and any criminal sanction established by law.
Article VI — Emergency and Coercive Power
Section 1. Emergency does not suspend law
An emergency does not create unlimited authority or suspend fundamental legal protections.
Any emergency measure must identify its precise statutory or constitutional authorization, state facts establishing the claimed necessity, use the least rights-restrictive effective measure, be limited in scope and duration, specify a fixed expiration date, and remain subject to prompt independent review.
No emergency declaration, workload, staffing shortage, confidentiality claim, custom, political pressure, or asserted expertise may authorize retroactive punishment, suspend due process, or excuse an official from an express legal duty.
Section 2. Required record of coercion
Every coercive state act, including arrest, search, seizure, detention, charge, surveillance, forfeiture, exclusion order, licensing deprivation, or use of force, shall be recorded contemporaneously or, where immediate action is necessary to preserve life or prevent grave injury, as soon as safely possible thereafter.
The record shall state the exact legal authority invoked; the facts satisfying each legal condition; the evidence relied upon; material contrary evidence known at the time; the identity and authority of the decision-maker; the scope, duration, and review date of the action; and the available means to contest the action and obtain remedy.
A coercive action lacking the required record is presumptively unauthorized unless the state proves that immediate action was necessary and that the record was completed promptly thereafter.
A material and unjustified omission bars later reliance on the omitted justification, without limiting the affected person's right to seek correction, compensation, or discipline.
Article VII — Official Accountability
Section 1. Heightened duty of public power
Police, prosecutors, judges, prison officials, forensic analysts, investigators, and all other state actors exercising coercive authority owe heightened duties of competence, honesty, restraint, disclosure, and faithful adherence to law.
The state's duty to stop an unauthorized deprivation, correct the record, restore the injured person where possible, and provide full practicable restoration does not depend on an individual official's assertion of good faith.
Section 2. Unauthorized power
A public official who knowingly exercises, directs, approves, conceals, or materially enables coercive power without legal authority is subject to criminal, civil, administrative, or equitable liability where the distinct elements of the applicable offense, claim, or disciplinary violation are proved.
Good faith, custom, superior instruction, workload, staffing shortage, political pressure, or administrative convenience do not create legal authority. They do not eliminate the state's duty to stop an unlawful deprivation, correct the record, restore the injured person where possible, and provide full practicable restoration.
Section 3. Negligence and culpability
Intent matters. A person who knowingly fabricates evidence or pursues a charge known to be false is more culpable than one who negligently breaches a clear duty.
Negligence may establish liability only where law provides for it and where a clear duty was breached in a manner that materially and foreseeably caused legally cognizable harm.
Responsibility shall be determined by the existence of a clear duty or legally defined standard of care; breach of that duty; material and foreseeable causal contribution to the harm; the person's proven mental state, whether negligent, reckless, knowing, or purposeful; and the remedy or sanction authorized by law.
Section 4. Supervisory accountability
Responsibility does not end with the lowest-ranking participant. A supervisor, policymaker, or order-giver may be responsible where their instruction, approval, concealment, failure of supervision, failure to train, failure to provide necessary resources, or culpable failure to act materially caused the deprivation.
No person may be held responsible solely because of rank. Supervisory responsibility requires proof of authority, duty, knowledge or legally sufficient notice, capacity to prevent or correct the violation, culpable breach, and material causal contribution.
Article VIII — Self-Defense and Defense of Others
Section 1. Nature of the right
Every person retains the right to protect self and others from imminent unlawful force. This right is not punishment, retaliation, or a license for private vengeance.
The law shall not demand detached perfection from a person facing an immediate and grave threat. The reasonableness of defensive conduct shall be assessed from the circumstances as they reasonably appeared to the person at the time, including the urgency and danger of the encounter.
Section 2. Justified force
A person who initiates unlawful force against another's bodily integrity or against the physical safety of another person forfeits, at the moment of initiation, any claim against the defensive force that follows. The defender, not the aggressor, determines the degree and kind of force required to end the threat and secure safety, without obligation to select the least severe effective measure or to match the force used to the force offered.
A person is justified in using any degree of force, including deadly force, that the person believes necessary to stop another person's unlawful use of force or unlawful threat of force against the person's own bodily integrity or that of another. The defender is not required to correctly anticipate the limits of the aggressor's intended violence, and may act on the reasonable inability to know whether the aggressor's conduct will escalate.
The primary duty rests upon every person not to initiate unlawful force against another. A person who breaches that duty bears the consequences of the defender's response, whatever its severity, provided the defender's belief that force was necessary was honestly held.
Section 3. Review of claimed justification
A defender's own account of the threat and the necessity of the response, once given, shall be accepted as conclusive unless a specific, articulable basis exists to doubt its truthfulness. Investigation shall not proceed on the basis of the severity of the outcome alone, on speculation about alternative responses the defender might have chosen, or on a tribunal's own assessment of what force was "necessary" in hindsight.
Where such a specific and articulable basis for doubt exists, the matter shall proceed to full adversarial examination under Article V. Absent such a basis, no further coercive proceeding shall be initiated against the defender.
Article IX — Deterrence and Equal Application
Section 1. Legitimate purposes
Lawful sanctions may serve restoration, protection, incapacitation where necessary, condemnation of proven wrongdoing, and deterrence.
Punishment shall not be designed to engineer agony. Torture, sexual abuse, starvation, arbitrary terror, fabricated degradation, and violence against a person who poses no imminent threat are unlawful exercises of power.
Section 2. Effective deterrence
A serious deterrence policy shall prioritize competent investigation, preservation and disclosure of evidence, reliable adjudication, lawful protection of victims, and the credible certainty of lawful consequence, rather than relying principally on escalating punishment severity.
Section 3. Equal law
Victims, accused persons, witnesses, police, prosecutors, judges, elected officials, wealthy persons, and popular factions stand under the same law.
No person's office, wealth, ideology, social status, popularity, or political usefulness creates immunity from lawful accountability. No person's unpopularity, poverty, accusation, or association authorizes punishment without proof and due process.
The innocent shall not be sacrificed to convenience. The harmed shall not be abandoned to indifference. The responsible shall not be excused by status or office. The state shall not conceal incompetence or corruption behind ceremony, rhetoric, or authority.
Article X — Amendment
Section 1. Amendment of this Charter
This Charter may be amended only by a process that requires public proposal, a defined period for public review and comment prior to a final vote, and adoption by not less than a two-thirds majority of the body or bodies constitutionally empowered to amend it, followed by publication in accessible form and a stated effective date not earlier than the date of publication.
No amendment may take effect retroactively, nor may it be applied to conduct, deprivation, or proceeding occurring before its effective date.
Section 2. Amendment of the incorporated canonical text
A revision to the canonical text incorporated by the Preamble has no legal effect under this Charter unless the revision is separately adopted through the process required by Section 1 of this Article, identified by stable citation, and made publicly accessible before the conduct or deprivation at issue.
Nothing in this Section prevents ongoing public discussion, drafting, or revision of the canonical text outside its legal incorporation; only a revision adopted under Section 1 binds any proceeding under this Charter.
