The main purpose of government is to increase:

The exact methods used to achieve these goals may be discussed and improved over time. New methods may be added to this document.

The core purpose described in this Article cannot be changed or amended.

Freedom must be balanced with the right of every person to be safe and secure. The freedom of one group cannot come at the cost of the safety of another group.

All forms of slavery are forbidden.

Exploitation of others must be strictly limited. The inability to exploit others is not considered harm. The inability to gain unlimited wealth without limits is not considered harm.

This Article cannot be changed or amended.

The government has no power of its own. All public authority comes from the people and may be exercised only where this Constitution expressly grants it. No office, agency, branch, or public body may claim any independent will, interest, right, or legitimacy separate from the people.

The government may not create power for itself. Necessity, tradition, administrative convenience, institutional interest, and claims of self-preservation are not independent sources of public authority. When power is exercised, the burden remains on the government to show that the people granted that power through this Constitution.

The government is granted only a narrow authority to impose criminal or civil penalties for speech. That authority exists only where speech plainly, intentionally, and willfully incites imminent physically violent action that would result in death or serious bodily injury. No other speech may be made subject to criminal penalty, civil penalty, official retaliation, administrative punishment, licensing consequence, policy restriction, or other state-imposed burden by statute, regulation, policy, or practice. Where competency is required to be ascertained by this Constitution, spicific speach that speaks to relevant competencies can be used to determine the required competency assessment. Allowances and penalties that arise after the assessment are not penalties of the supporting speach itself.

Corporate entities are privileged legal fictions permitted by the people through law. They do not exist by natural right. The government is granted authority to create, monitor, regulate, limit, tax, and dissolve corporate entities as necessary to carry out the other powers and duties established by this Constitution.

Corporate entities are not natural persons and are not granted an independent right of speech, conscience, belief, or political opinion under this Constitution. The natural persons who form, own, manage, work for, or otherwise participate in a corporate entity retain their own individual rights of speech.

A corporate entity may carry, host, transmit, print, manufacture, sell, fund infrastructure for, or otherwise facilitate the expression of natural persons as provided by law. Such facilitation does not grant the corporate entity a political opinion or speech right of its own.

The government is granted authority to regulate, limit, or prohibit the use of corporate funds, assets, mechanisms, or coordinated output for political advocacy, campaign activity, or other expressive conduct claimed in the name of the corporate entity itself.

This Article cannot be changed or amended in any way that grants the government an independent source of authority separate from the people.

Revocation Votes exist so that citizens may remove or punish public officials who abuse their authority. Officials who are merely incompetent should face removal or temporary bans from office. Officials who take part in corruption or actions against the public interest should face stronger punishment, including prison.

All citizens who reach the required age are automatically allowed to take part in Revocation Votes. There shall be no additional requirements for participation.

The voting age for Revocation Votes is 18 years old. This age may not be raised above 18 years old.

Revocation Votes apply to:

Whenever elections are held for public office, citizens will also receive materials for Revocation Votes. Eligible voters will receive a combined ballot that includes:

Revocation Votes are counted as a percentage of all eligible Revocation voters, not only those who voted. If 1,000 people are eligible, the percentages are calculated using all 1,000 people. Selecting a higher option also counts as support for every lower option. Example: A vote for 5 also counts as votes for 4, 3, 2, and 1. The highest option that reaches its required percentage becomes the final outcome. If no option reaches its required percentage, no action is taken.

The outcome of an Revocation Vote:

The percentages in this Article may only be lowered. The age threshold for Revocation Votes may be changed, but not raised above 18 years old. No other changes to this Article may be made.

People have both the right and the responsibility to understand how their government works.

Civics education will be freely available to all citizens older than four years of age. School-age children will receive civics education that teaches:

Civics education must present factual information only. It must not instruct students on what opinions they should hold. Debates about political opinions should occur between individuals, not as mass instruction.

Citizens are responsible for staying informed about their government. They must monitor government actions and hold officials accountable for abuses of power. Without active participation, dishonest leaders can slowly trick the public into accepting policies that harm them.

Government must not rely only on elections, polling, lobbying organizations, or reports from officeholders to understand the condition and will of the people. This Constitution therefore directly involves ordinary citizens in defined parts of public government, often by lottery from the relevant population. These institutions exist to keep public officials grounded in reality, to expose government to what people are actually experiencing, and to reduce the distance between representation and lived public conditions.

Direct citizen participation under this Constitution is a civic duty. Employers, schools, universities, licensing bodies, and all other public and private institutions shall provide the time, flexibility, leave, access, and other reasonable accommodations needed for a citizen to take part in such duties. Whether a citizen is able to participate in a given instance shall be judged by that citizen alone, except where this Constitution expressly provides otherwise.

No institution may obstruct, punish, threaten, retaliate against, or otherwise interfere with a citizen for taking part in any civic duty established by this Constitution. Congress and the several states shall provide severe penalties for every such violation. No penalty for such interference may be set below the greater of five percent of the violating institution’s global revenue or five percent of its global asset value for each violation.

Citizens who participate in elections invest time and attention in their government. That investment earns them a voice beyond a simple vote. This Article creates a way for citizens to speak directly to every level of their government.

Any citizen eligible to participate in Revocation Votes may submit a complaint as part of the voting process. Complaints shall take the form of a structured poll covering common hardships and grievances. The complaint poll shall present fixed categories and options; it shall not include open-ended fields. The categories and options in the complaint poll shall be reviewed and updated periodically by a process established by law.

Citizens who are fully eligible to vote in elections — not only Revocation Votes — may additionally submit open-ended feedback. Open-ended feedback may include:

Feedback shall be submitted through the same system used for voting. No extra steps may be added to the feedback process beyond checking that the citizen qualifies. Submitting feedback is optional and does not affect the validity of a citizen’s vote.

All feedback submitted by a citizen shall be delivered to every level of government with jurisdiction over that citizen. This includes, at minimum: the relevant municipality, county, state, and federal bodies. No feedback is directed at any single official or body. Each level of government receives a complete copy of all feedback from the citizens within its jurisdiction. This ensures that every layer of government is made aware of how its citizens are living, what they are experiencing, and what they believe needs to change. The compiled feedback shall be delivered no later than thirty days after the close of the voting period.

All compiled feedback shall be made publicly available in a searchable and accessible format. Public records of compiled feedback shall be maintained for a minimum of twenty years.

Officials who receive compiled feedback must formally acknowledge receipt. No official may dismiss, destroy, or suppress compiled feedback. Officials are not required to act on individual feedback items, but the compiled record is part of the permanent public account of their tenure.

All feedback is anonymous by default. No identifying information shall be collected, stored, or transmitted alongside any feedback submission. If a citizen includes identifying information within the text of open-ended feedback, that text shall be stored and published as part of the public record without modification.

Natural persons retain the full political speech protections recognized by this Constitution.

Organizations may carry, host, transmit, print, broadcast, distribute, manufacture, or otherwise facilitate the political speech of natural persons, subject to the limits described in this Article and elsewhere in this Constitution.

No organization may claim an independent political opinion, conscience, belief, or candidate preference under this Constitution merely because it has legal existence.

During the 60 days before an election or Revocation Vote, organizations may not promote candidates or argue which candidate should win. This period belongs exclusively to the people.

Exceptions exist for factual reporting concerning:

Improper claims of exemption may be challenged by a public petition containing:

Voting in elections is both a right and a responsibility. A citizen who has paid no attention to an election can still accurately judge that the current state of affairs is not working for them — and for that judgment, the Revocation Vote and the complaint submission are available to everyone. Selecting candidates to hold office requires a basic familiarity with what those candidates claim they will do. This Article establishes the minimum standard for a citizen to receive a full ballot, and ensures that standard remains as low as it can reasonably be.

Forty-five days before any election, the stated positions of all candidates shall be frozen as they appear on the official election platform. No changes to a candidate’s stated positions may be made after the freeze date. The frozen positions shall remain permanently on the public record. They serve as a permanent reference. Citizens can use them to check whether an official kept their promises, including in future Revocation Votes.

Once the platform is frozen, a group of regular citizens chosen by lottery will write the test questions for that election. These groups are called citizen question panels. One panel is put together for each district at the highest level of government in that election:

Before receiving a ballot, a citizen shall be offered a ballot eligibility test. The test shall contain no more than five questions, randomly selected from the full set of questions covering candidates who would appear on that citizen’s full ballot. The test is separate from the ballot. The citizen completes the test first, and then receives the appropriate ballot based on the result. A citizen who answers all questions correctly shall receive a full ballot. A citizen who answers any question incorrectly shall receive a Revocation ballot and shall be eligible to submit a complaint as described in Article 6. A citizen may decline to take the test and shall receive a Revocation ballot. The test shall be available in any language in which the official election platform is available.

The outcome of the eligibility test determines only the type of ballot a citizen receives. It does not limit a citizen’s right to participate in Revocation Votes or complaint submissions. No record shall be kept of how a citizen answered individual test questions, only of the ballot type issued.

The requirements of this Article may only be made easier or removed entirely. The number of questions on the eligibility test may be lowered but not raised above five. The panel composition rules, the number of panels, and the method of assigning panels to districts may be changed by amendment. However, no amendment may alter the following minimum requirements for any panel lottery:

If this Article is ever repealed or removed from this Constitution by amendment, every citizen who has reached the minimum voting age shall automatically be entitled to a full ballot without any eligibility test. No law, regulation, or administrative rule may impose a substitute eligibility requirement in its place.

All election campaigns shall be publicly funded. Funding may increase only to match general inflation.

Every election shall have one official public platform where candidates publish:

Campaigns may not buy or run advertisements. Campaigns may not receive outside funding, including funding from the candidate.

The election platform will be managed by a five-person council elected by voters. The platform’s responsibilities include:

The platform shall not contain opinion-based features such as:

The platform may allow citizens to send questions or concerns directly to campaigns.

Campaign funds may be used for travel, lodging, and food for gatherings with constituents. These events should focus on question-and-answer sessions, not one-way political speeches.

Voters must choose platform council members carefully, as the legitimacy of elections depends on their integrity.

All electoral maps shall be drawn only by an independent commission. Each such commission shall be composed of:

The government may not execute individuals. It may not assume an individual wishes to die, nor may it impose a death sentence. The most severe punishment permitted is life imprisonment.

This prohibition exists to prevent political misuse of criminal punishment, including the targeting of political opponents or innocent citizens.

Law enforcement may use deadly force only to prevent immediate loss of life or severe injury.

Deadly force may be used only when:

If after a deadly force incident, the officer is found to have used deadly force in violation of this Article, he or she must be permanently barred from law enforcement service, regardless of whether there is enough evidence to support a criminal prosecution.

Every death caused by government actors must be treated as a preventable tragedy. Each case must receive a full investigation, including institutional recommendations designed to prevent similar events in the future. The complete invetigative report must be made public with no redactions. The report must be made available to the public in a searchable and accessible format and maintained for a period of at least 50 years.

No law-making body at the federal or state level may hold a secret vote of any kind — on any bill, amendment, nomination, or other official action. Every vote must be recorded by name and made public within 24 hours.

If a representative votes for something they publicly say is painful, costly, or unpopular, they must submit a written explanation to the public record within 72 hours. The explanation must say, in plain language, why the representative believes the vote is good for the people they serve. The reasoning behind hard choices belongs to the people. A representative who cannot explain a vote in public should think twice before casting it.

No internal rule, tradition, or agreement within a legislative body may be used to hide how any member voted. The people’s right to know how their representative voted on any specific matter cannot be taken away, paused, or worked around.

All legislative votes shall be gathered into a permanent, searchable public record kept by a body independent of the legislature. Records must be kept for at least 50 years and must be free to access for any citizen.

Open voting records are also a tool for civic education. When citizens can see what their representatives are voting for and read their stated reasons, they are better able to understand difficult policy choices. When representatives must explain hard votes to an informed public, they are doing exactly what democracy asks of them: walking people through tough tradeoffs and making the case for their decisions. This habit, practiced openly over time, helps build the kind of informed public that good government depends on.

Some legislatures in this country have more than one chamber — for example, the House and the Senate at the federal level. This is called a multichamber legislature. The point of having multiple chambers is to slow things down. A bill that passes one chamber must survive real, independent review by one or more separate groups of people who were elected differently and answer to different sets of voters. That check disappears when chambers quietly agree on outcomes in advance, skip the debate, or coordinate outside of public view. This Article protects the independent character of each chamber by prohibiting the forms of backroom coordination that gut a multichamber legislature from the inside while leaving it standing on paper.

Members of one chamber may not coordinate with members of any other chamber about pending or upcoming legislation except through the official channels listed in Section 4 of this Article. This prohibition applies to all levels of government with a multichamber legislature, including federal and state bodies.

The following are expressly forbidden:

Members of different chambers may only communicate about legislation through the following official channels, and all proceedings of those channels must be fully and publicly recorded:

Belonging to the same political party, legislative caucus (a group of legislators who act together), or outside organization does not create any exception to this Article. No agreement made outside of government — including party plans, group resolutions, or commitments to outside organizations — may bind any member’s vote or take the place of open debate and deliberation.

Violations of this Article are a breach of legislative duty. Any member found, based on evidence that makes it more likely than not, to have engaged in prohibited coordination shall:

This Article applies equally to all state legislatures that have more than one chamber. Legislatures with only one chamber are exempt from this Article.

The federal government shall be a constitutional republic composed of three branches: a legislative branch, an executive branch, and a judicial branch. These branches are established by this Constitution and shall operate only within the powers and limits set out in this document. No inference shall be drawn from this Article to preserve any specific election procedure, term rule, or office qualification that this Constitution later changes.

The legislative power of the United States shall be vested in a Congress composed of two chambers: a House of Representatives and a Senate. The House of Representatives shall be the lower chamber of Congress and shall represent the people in the making of federal law. The Senate shall be the upper chamber of Congress and shall participate equally in the making of federal law, subject to the changes expressly stated in Article 15 of this Constitution.

Members of the House of Representatives shall serve four-year terms. House seats shall be divided into two classes as nearly equal in number as practicable. One class shall be elected every two years.

When this Constitution first takes effect, the seats assigned to one class shall have an initial term of two years, and the seats assigned to the other class shall have an initial term of four years. After those initial terms, every House seat shall carry a four-year term.

Members of the House of Representatives shall be chosen from districts within the several states. House seats shall be divided among the states according to population, as measured by the most recent federal census. Each state shall have at least one Representative.

The total number of Representatives shall be set by law. Congress may change the size of the House after a federal census, but no change in House size shall take effect until the next regular House election. Apportionment shall be recalculated after each federal census on a schedule established by law.

House districts shall be single-member districts unless this Constitution is amended to provide a different method of representation. Districts within a state shall contain substantially equal populations as nearly as practicable.

All House districts shall be drawn by the independent electoral mapping process required elsewhere in this Constitution. No district may be drawn to favor or disfavor a political party, candidate, incumbent, faction, donor, organization, or viewpoint.

A member of Congress must be a citizen eligible to vote in federal elections. A Representative must live in the district represented at the time of election. A Senator must live in the state represented at the time of election.

No property, wealth, income, profession, education, party-membership, or endorsement requirement may be imposed as a qualification for service in Congress.

When a vacancy occurs in the House of Representatives, the vacancy shall be filled by special election as soon as practicable, and no later than one hundred twenty days after the vacancy occurs unless physical impossibility prevents the election. No person may be appointed to cast votes in the House in place of the people of the vacant district.

The office of the vacant district shall remain open for constituent service and emergency assistance as provided by law until the special election is completed.

A majority of the members of each chamber shall constitute a quorum for that chamber to conduct legislative business. A smaller number may meet, adjourn, preserve records, receive public testimony, and compel the attendance of absent members as provided by law and by the published rules of that chamber.

Each chamber shall choose its own officers. The House shall choose a Speaker. The Senate shall choose its own presiding officer and other officers. No executive officer may preside over either chamber of Congress.

Each chamber may discipline its members for disorderly conduct, abuse of office, corruption, obstruction of constitutional duties, or violation of the published rules of that chamber. Discipline may include censure, loss of committee assignments, loss of internal leadership positions, or other internal penalties consistent with this Constitution.

No member may be expelled from Congress except by a recorded vote of two thirds of the chamber in which that member serves. Expulsion does not replace, limit, delay, or prevent any Revocation Vote available to the people.

Members of Congress shall receive compensation for their service, set by law. No law changing congressional compensation shall take effect for any seat until after the next normal election for that seat’s own class. For Representatives, a compensation change applies to a seat only after the next regular election for that House seat’s class. For Senators, a compensation change applies to a seat only after the next regular election for that Senate seat’s class.

A member who fills a vacancy by special election or temporary appointment receives only the compensation already applicable to that seat. No current officeholder may vote a compensation increase into effect for that officeholder without first facing the normal election for the class of seat held.

Compensation shall be public, uniform within each chamber, and paid only from public funds. No member of Congress may receive compensation, gifts, employment, or anything of material value from any private person or organization in return for legislative action or inaction.

A member of Congress may not be punished in any discernible way for speech made during formal debate on the floor of the chamber in which that member serves. This protection applies against punishment, retaliation, disability, disqualification, or burden by any chamber, committee, officer, agency, court, political party, caucus, public campaign system, public election system, or other body exercising public authority. It includes criminal penalty, civil penalty, administrative punishment, removal from committee assignments, loss of legislative privileges, party or caucus discipline, ballot consequences, public funding consequences, or any other direct or indirect consequence imposed because of the protected speech.

The only exception is speech expressly intended to incite imminent lawless action likely to cause injury or death. This Section does not protect bribery, corruption, threats outside formal floor debate, violence, agreements to trade official action for private benefit, or conduct that is not speech made during formal floor debate.

The executive power of the United States shall be vested in a President of the United States. The office of Vice President shall exist. The executive branch shall carry out and administer federal law, subject to any express changes made elsewhere in this Constitution.

Congress may create, organize, combine, divide, modify, and abolish federal agencies by law. No federal agency may exercise public power unless its existence, purpose, and authority are established by law. Every law creating or substantially revising a federal agency shall define that agency’s public purpose, scope of authority, duties, methods of oversight, and relationship to the President and to Congress. Congress may not impose duties on a federal agency without providing funding sufficient to carry out those duties in a reasonable manner. Congress may not render a legal mandate effectively inoperative by reducing, withholding, or failing reasonably to adjust the funding needed to carry out that mandate. If Congress wishes to reduce, suspend, transfer, or end an agency function or legal duty, it shall do so by law. No agency created or empowered by law may be nullified in practice through appropriations manipulation alone. Congress may require periodic review, reauthorization, reporting, or sunset of any federal agency or agency power. No agency may lawfully claim powers beyond those granted to it by this Constitution and the laws made under it.

Federal agencies and their officers shall carry out the law faithfully and impartially. No officer of the United States may direct or pressure a federal agency to use its legal powers for partisan advantage, personal advantage, retaliation, favoritism, or punishment outside lawful process. No agency decision concerning enforcement, licensing, benefits, records, investigations, adjudications, or other official action may be altered or delayed for the purpose of helping or harming any political party, candidate, officeholder, donor, faction, or viewpoint. Congress shall provide by law for transparency, records preservation, review procedures, and other safeguards sufficient to detect and deter political abuse of agency power.

The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such inferior courts as are established by law. The federal judiciary shall decide cases arising under federal law and this Constitution, subject to any express changes made elsewhere in this Constitution.

Senate seats shall be divided among the states based on each state’s share of the total national population, as measured by the most recent federal census. The Senate shall be rebalanced after each census on the same schedule used for the House of Representatives.

No state shall have fewer than two Senators.

The total number of Senate seats shall remain at one hundred until the first rebalancing under this Article takes effect. After that, the total number of seats may be changed by law, as long as no state falls below two senators and no change takes effect in the middle of a census cycle.

Senators shall serve six-year terms. Senate seats shall be divided into three classes as nearly equal in number as practicable. One class shall be elected every two years.

The assignment of Senate seats to classes shall preserve staggered elections nationally and, where practicable, within each state. When Senate seats are added, removed, or reassigned after a census, Congress shall assign those seats to classes in a way that preserves the staggered structure and avoids shortening the term of any sitting Senator.

A Senator must satisfy the congressional qualifications stated in Article 14 of this Constitution. No additional qualification may be imposed on Senators unless this Constitution expressly authorizes it.

When a vacancy occurs in the Senate, the vacancy shall be filled by special election as soon as practicable, and no later than one hundred twenty days after the vacancy occurs unless physical impossibility prevents the election.

State law may provide for a temporary Senator to serve until the special election is completed. A temporary Senator must satisfy the same qualifications as an elected Senator and shall have the full duties and limits of the office. No temporary appointment may extend past the completion of the special election.

The shift to population-based Senate seats shall happen gradually, so that representation is not disrupted. Senators already serving when this Constitution takes effect shall complete their full terms. The new rules apply to each Senate seat the next time it comes up for election. No Senator is removed from office early simply because of this Article. The convention shall set the specific schedule and seat groupings as part of the ratified document.

A proposed federal law shall begin as a bill. Every bill shall have a title that substantially describes its contents. Every bill shall be divided into three parts:

Each chamber may debate bills, hold hearings, gather testimony, request records, and propose amendments according to law and its published rules. All final votes on bills shall be public and recorded by name as required elsewhere in this Constitution.

No bill shall become law unless it is passed by both chambers of Congress in the same form. If the two chambers pass different versions of a bill, they may use official public procedures to produce a single agreed text. Any final agreed text must be voted on again by both chambers before it is sent to the President.

Every bill passed by both chambers shall be presented to the President before it may become law. The President may sign the bill or return it with written objections.

If the President returns a bill with objections, the bill shall return to the chamber in which it last stood for reconsideration under rules established by law. The objections shall be entered into the public record. If two thirds of each chamber vote to pass the bill despite the objections, the bill shall become law.

If the President receives a bill and does not sign or return it within ten days, excluding Sundays, the bill shall become law as if signed, unless Congress by its adjournment prevents the bill from being returned. If Congress prevents return of the bill during that period, the bill shall not become law.

Each chamber of Congress may create committees, hold public hearings, issue reports, compel testimony and the production of records by lawful process, investigate matters within its authority, and propose amendments to legislation before final passage. These powers exist to support informed lawmaking and accountability, not to replace the constitutional limits placed on government.

The President may recommend laws, approve bills by signature, reject bills by veto with written objections, direct the executive branch in the faithful administration of federal law, and require written opinions from principal officers of the executive departments on matters within their duties. These powers may be used only within the limits of this Constitution and the laws made under it.

Citizens of voting age may propose federal legislation by ballot initiative. If a number of valid signatures set by law is collected, the proposed legislation must be presented to both chambers of Congress for a public vote. Any vote against such legislation must be justified in writing and added to the public record within 72 hours.

If Congress concludes that a citizen-proposed bill cannot pass because it contains constitutional defects, legal defects, or provisions too unclear to be carried out, either chamber may take up the proposal as the basis for a separate bill. Any such derivative bill shall proceed through the ordinary legislative process. The original public vote and its result shall remain permanent and part of the public record. If a derivative bill becomes law, the text of the original proposal and the final enacted text shall be preserved side by side in the permanent public record for public review.

Taxes on natural persons shall recognize that there are basic costs required for ordinary daily life that do not rise and fall in direct proportion to income. These costs shall be considered when establishing tax burdens, benefit structures, credits, deductions, and other public financial obligations affecting natural persons.

Taxes on organizations shall recognize that there are basic costs required for continued lawful existence that do not rise and fall in direct proportion to income or revenue. These costs include ordinary filings, compliance duties, recordkeeping duties, and other basic obligations required by law. They shall be considered when establishing tax burdens, credits, deductions, and other public financial obligations affecting organizations.

Tax rates, benefit rates, credit values, deduction values, phase-ins, phase-outs, and similar financial rules shall be composed of continuous mathematical functions, except where a tax, benefit, credit, or deduction reaches zero and is capped at zero. A law may allow an uncapped function if the people and the government determine that the uncapped form serves the public.

No combination of taxes, benefits, credits, deductions, fees, or similar public financial rules may create a local maximum in cumulative take-home resources. For natural persons, increased income may not result in lower cumulative take-home pay or available resources than would have existed at a lower income. For organizations, increased income, revenue, or productive activity may not result in lower cumulative available resources than would have existed at a lower level of income, revenue, or productive activity.

Sharp discontinuous transitions in tax or benefit systems are forbidden unless the discontinuity exists only because a tax, benefit, credit, or deduction has reached zero and cannot fall below zero. No person or organization shall be placed in a position where earning one additional dollar, receiving one additional dollar of revenue, or modestly increasing productive activity causes a loss of one dollar or more in cumulative take-home resources through the combined operation of public financial rules.

All tax credits shall be refundable. Tax credits and tax deductions shall comply with the continuity, no-cliff, and no-local-maximum requirements of this Article. Eligibility for a credit or deduction may not end through a sharp cutoff except where the value of that credit or deduction has continuously reached zero and can fall no lower.

Every tax incentive, tax preference, or tax reduction strategy created by law shall take the form of a tax credit or tax deduction. Other schemes for reducing tax burdens, especially schemes designed to avoid the continuity requirements of this Article, are forbidden.

No enforceable patent shall be owned as private property by a natural person, corporation, or other private entity. Enforceable patents shall be owned in common by the people and held in public stewardship by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or by its constitutional successor.

The patent office shall serve as a public clearinghouse for access, attribution, licensing, compensation, records, and compliance. Private parties may hold compensation interests arising from patents, but the patent itself remains publicly stewarded and may not be used as a right to exclude lawful use.

Every enforceable patent shall be available for licensing on standardized, public, non-discriminatory terms. No qualified applicant may be arbitrarily denied access to an enforceable patent. The default rule is use with compensation, not exclusion from use.

Restricted application domains may be established only by law for technologies whose use creates clear risks of death, serious injury, mass harm, weaponization, unlawful surveillance, or comparable public danger. Access in such domains shall be governed by objective certification, compliance, auditing, and accountability requirements, not favoritism, market protection, or suppression of competition.

A patent may be granted only for an invention that is novel, useful, non-obvious, reproducible, and sufficiently disclosed to allow persons skilled in the relevant field to practice it. Laws of nature, natural phenomena, abstract ideas, general knowledge, and discoveries that do not teach a reproducible human use shall not be patentable.

Patent applications shall receive administrative and prima facie review by trained patent examiners. Applications shall also receive contracted review by experts in the relevant field for novelty and non-obviousness as provided by law. Domain experts are necessary because non-obviousness must be judged in light of the real constraints, tradeoffs, and technical limits the proposed invention was designed to address.

A patent examiner or contracted domain expert may challenge an application if the grounds for the challenge are clearly articulated. The process for contracted expert review, including selection, conflicts of interest, compensation, records, and challenge procedures, shall be established by law.

The persons who actually create a patentable invention shall retain a compensation interest in that invention. A compensation interest may be assigned, licensed, inherited, pledged, or otherwise transferred only as provided by law and only within the limits of this Section.

No person may transfer more than ninety-nine percent of that person’s maximum lifetime compensation interest in an invention. At least one percent of each inventor’s original compensation interest shall remain with that inventor for that inventor’s life. If more than one natural person is named as an inventor, the protected inventor-retained interest shall be divided equally among the named inventors unless those inventors agree to a different division among themselves.

This Section does not prevent an employer, investor, university, laboratory, contractor, or other participant from receiving a lawful share of patent compensation. It prevents the actual human innovators from being reduced to no compensation at all for the invention they created.

Patent compensation shall be paid through licensing, not exclusion. Each enforceable patent shall carry a formula-based licensing schedule established by law and administered by the patent office.

The formula shall include:

Costs shall be audited, normalized, and limited by law to prevent inflation, self-dealing, waste, or internal inefficiency from increasing patent compensation. Licensing rates and compensation formulas shall be public, reviewable, and non-discriminatory.

Patent enforceability shall end at the earlier of:

The cumulative compensation threshold shall be prescribed by law, but it may not exceed one billion dollars adjusted for inflation from 2026 dollars. After enforceability ends, the invention shall enter the public domain and may be used without patent licensing.

An inventor may make a provisional development filing to establish priority during active development. A provisional filing may permit limited licensing at reduced rates, but only while the invention remains in active, documented development.

The maximum period for a provisional development filing shall be prescribed by law, but it may not exceed seven years. A provisional development filing must show continuous progress and may not be used to delay final filing indefinitely.

A final filing may be accepted only when the invention reaches a defined threshold of completeness, reproducibility, and disclosure. Final filing begins the full licensing schedule and starts the twenty-year patent enforceability period.

Any person may submit an invention, improvement, method, combination, or technical disclosure for public good. Such a submission shall be published immediately and shall become prior art upon filing.

If confirmed as novel, the submission shall be permanently available to the public without patent licensing. If the submission depends on an underlying enforceable patent(s), use of the underlying patent(s) remains subject to ordinary licensing.

Trade-secret protection shall not be indefinite. Confidentiality may be used during active development only for a limited period prescribed by law, and that period may not exceed five years.

After that period, the knowledge must enter the patent system, be submitted for public good, be published, or otherwise lose legal protection as secret knowledge. The maximum period during which an idea may receive any combination of trade-secret protection, provisional patent protection, and final patent enforceability is thirty-two years.

Patent licensing obligations shall be tied to observable and auditable use, including units produced, services rendered, revenue, measurable performance characteristics, or other objective indicators. Congress shall provide by law for standardized reporting, audits, records, anti-evasion rules, and penalties for concealment or nonpayment.

No enforceable patent may be used to prevent the lawful combination, improvement, integration, or interoperable use of patented inventions. Compensation shall follow use; access shall not be denied to suppress competition or block cumulative innovation.

Congress may fund foundational research, high-risk research, applied development, translational development, milestone prizes, and other public mechanisms that advance useful innovation. Public funding may be used to reduce private risk, accelerate commercialization, and support inventions whose public value exceeds their immediate market value.

Nothing in this Article prevents competition in manufacturing, deployment, service, design, quality, price, scale, reliability, efficiency, or improvement. The patent system shall reward contribution through use-based compensation, not through exclusion from use.

The legislature, the President, and the federal courts may each convene a citizen advisory panel as part of their ordinary duties. These panels may be used to seek input, hear reactions, test public understanding, or receive suggestions on matters of public concern.

Every citizen who has reached voting age is eligible for selection. There shall be no exceptions to eligibility. Panel members shall be chosen by lottery from the full population of citizens of voting age. The number of citizens serving on a panel shall be set by law.

A selected citizen may refuse service without giving any reason. If a selected citizen refuses service, another citizen shall be chosen by lottery to take that place.

For each day of service, a citizen serving on a panel shall be paid twice that citizen’s daily wages or 200 dollars per day, whichever is greater. It shall be unlawful for any employer or business to interfere with a citizen’s commencement or completion of this service.

Transportation and lodging shall be provided when necessary. Electronic participation shall be permitted. If a selected citizen does not have the means to participate digitally, the government shall provide the necessary equipment, connectivity, and technical assistance to make participation possible. Appropriate government information technology staff may perform this duty directly, or contractors may be used where needed.

A citizen advisory panel is advisory only. No panel may directly make law, issue orders, decide cases, or exercise the powers of any branch of government.

No part of this Constitution shall be interpreted in a way that defeats the purpose stated in Article 1. The purpose of government established in Article 1 shall guide the reading of every other Article, Section, and clause of this document.

The federal courts may determine whether legislation, executive action, or other exercises of public power are compatible with this Constitution. If a court determines that a law or any part of a law is unconstitutional, the court may declare that law without effect. If a court determines that executive action is unconstitutional, the court may enjoin the executive from performing that action. If a court determines that another use of public power not expressly enumerated here is unconstitutional, the court may declare that use of that power without effect. All uses of this declaration power shall serve to return things to the status they were in before the unconstitutional action.

When a law, order, policy, memorandum, regulation, act, or other use of public power is under constitutional review, a court may issue an injunction against the governmental body responsible for acting under it. The injunction may forbid further action, pause enforcement, and require restoration of the status quo until the court can make a full ruling.

An injunction may issue when persons affected by the challenged action would otherwise face imminent severe harm. Severe harm includes financial, physical, emotional, and psychological harm. The government is not entitled to act first and justify later when its action may be unconstitutional. When harm is not imminent, no injunctions shall be issued.

The scope of an injunction shall be broad enough to protect the people affected by the challenged action. Where the action applies nationwide, statewide, municipality-wide, or across any other defined jurisdiction or region, the injunction may apply across that same area. Broad injunctions exist to protect the people from attempts by public servants or public bodies to exercise power the people did not grant.

Multiple injunctions concerning the same or similar law, order, policy, memorandum, regulation, act, or other use of public power may be issued as a court deems appropriate. When prior injunctions have already reviewed the same or similar action, later injunctions should ordinarily be subject to a higher standard or narrower scope to account for the pre-existing judicial review.

The broad injunctive power described in this Section may be used for a law, order, policy, memorandum, regulation, act, or other use of public power that began enforcement within the previous 36 months. A new executive interpretation of an existing law, or a new and novel enforcement of an existing law, shall be treated as new action for the first 36 months of its implementation. After that period, a court may not issue a new broad injunction under this Section. Broad injunctions issued in cases that arose within the 36-month period may continue past that period as necessary for those cases.

This time limit is intended to preserve the longstanding status quo while constitutional questions are decided. For newly enforced law or public action, the status quo may require pausing implementation. For law or public action that has been in force for more than 36 months, the status quo is continued enforcement unless and until the court reaches a final ruling or grants narrower relief authorized by law.

Congress may seek pre-enactment constitutional review to minimize this risk. If Congress chooses to enact a law without seeking that review, it accepts that a broad injunction may be a likely consequence of fast-tracking the law before its constitutionality has been fully determined.

Courts may issue limited emergency stays or injunctions outside normal court hours when necessary to preserve the status quo until normal court proceedings are available. This authority exists only for true emergencies where irreparable harm cannot wait for ordinary review, including attempts by public officials or other actors to evade foreseeable review by acting before a court can respond.

An emergency order issued outside normal court hours may preserve the status quo, but it shall not decide the merits of the constitutional question or serve as a substitute for ordinary judicial review. Every off-hours emergency order expires no later than 36 hours after it is issued. This limit applies to every off-hours emergency order, even if the judge includes full reasoning. A judge may not give an off-hours order longer effect by choosing to explain it more fully.

The challenged action shall be reviewed promptly at the next available opportunity during normal court proceedings. Any stay, injunction, or other order that lasts beyond the off-hours emergency period must be issued through that normal review and must be fully reasoned and articulate. Off-hours authority is only a temporary tool to prevent irreparable harm before ordinary proceedings can occur.

Misuse of this emergency authority is a breach of judicial duty. Judges are meant to dispense plain and transparent justice and rulings of law, not terse and opaque commands disguised as such. Abuse of this power may be considered by the people through Revocation Votes.

A court may not rewrite legislation in order to save it. A court may not add language, remove language, narrow language by inventing a substitute rule, or prescribe a corrected version of a law in order to make that law constitutional. When legislation fails constitutional review, it is the duty of the legislature, not the judiciary, to decide whether to revise it or abandon it.

When a court holds legislation unconstitutional, it shall explain in detail why the legislation fails under this Constitution. The court shall identify the constitutional conflict and the reasoning that leads to its decision. The court shall not prescribe fixes, draft substitute text, or suggest specific edits.

Constitutional claims shall receive heightened priority on the court’s docket. Courts shall resolve constitutional questions swiftly enough to give the legislature and the people a meaningful opportunity to respond, including an opportunity to correct constitutional deficiencies within the same legislative session where reasonably possible.

After both chambers of Congress have passed a bill in identical form, but before the bill is presented to the President, Congress may request constitutional review by a federal court as provided by law. The reviewing court shall examine the bill in the same manner it would examine legislation challenged in a case. If the court finds constitutional defects, it shall explain those defects and why they fail, but shall not suggest fixes or prescribe specific adjustments. If the bill fails this review, it shall return to Congress.

State legislatures may also request pre-enactment constitutional review as provided by law. A state legislature may seek review in the courts of that state for state constitutional questions, and may seek review in a federal court for federal constitutional questions.

A constitutional ruling issued through pre-enactment review shall be binding in future litigation to the same extent as a constitutional ruling issued in a case. A law that survives pre-enactment review may still later be found unconstitutional if new facts, new applications, or serious defects in the earlier review show that the law does not comply with this Constitution.

The government has a continuing duty to prepare for foreseeable disasters, disruptions, and emergencies. Preparation is not optional, and failure to prepare for known risks is a breach of public duty.

Public institutions shall regularly review the systems on which the population depends in order to identify preventable weaknesses, single points of failure, and foreseeable emergency conditions. These reviews shall include the adequacy of existing safeguards, response procedures, recovery plans, and public communication systems. Findings shall be used to reduce avoidable harm before a crisis occurs.

The government shall maintain and encourage reasonable redundancy in critical systems, including infrastructure, supply chains, essential public services, and other systems whose failure would predictably cause cascading harm. Public policy shall favor resilience where fragility would allow one emergency to trigger many others. Efficiency alone is not a sufficient reason to leave essential systems without backup capacity.

Emergency planning shall prioritize continuity of civilian life under normal civil authority. Plans shall be designed to reduce the need for extraordinary powers and to keep any emergency response as narrow, temporary, and accountable as possible. No emergency plan may be written or used as a pretext to permanently expand state power.

Martial law may be invoked only when ordinary civilian institutions are genuinely unable to maintain public order against an active external war requiring broad military coordination, or against sustained and organized armed conflict so severe that roaming armed groups are openly waging war beyond the realistic control of ordinary law enforcement. Natural disasters, infrastructure failures, public unrest, strikes, protests, civil disobedience, political resistance, or isolated acts of violence are not by themselves sufficient grounds for martial law. The burden shall remain on the government to show that no lesser civil response is adequate.

Any declaration of martial law shall expire after 60 days unless reauthorized under the same standard of necessity. Every reauthorization must be based on a current showing of continued threat and may not rely only on the original declaration. Reauthorization shall be treated as a new exercise of extraordinary power and must remain subject to all constitutional limits.

Martial law does not suspend the sovereignty of the people. The ordinary procedures for election qualification, election administration, citizen oversight of elections, Revocation Votes, and constitutional accountability shall remain in force. No declaration of martial law may cancel, postpone, or nullify those procedures except where physical impossibility makes temporary local adjustment unavoidable, and any such adjustment must be the narrowest possible.

The people shall retain the power to initiate an impromptu Revocation Vote against any official who declares, administers, or seeks to continue martial law. Access to that process shall not be suspended, burdened, or delayed on the ground that martial law is in effect. If the population believes martial law has been declared without sufficient justification, the people may use the revocation power to remove the officials responsible.

The government may not invoke martial law merely by labeling public resistance an insurrection. The word insurrection has no independent constitutional force under this document and shall not serve as sufficient pretext for extraordinary military rule. Small uprisings, regional disorder, or armed groups of limited scale shall be addressed through ordinary law enforcement and other civil means wherever those means remain realistically available.

The government derives its authority from the people and has no independent right to preserve itself against the people as a class. If public opposition becomes so broad that the government would characterize it as a general rebellion requiring military suppression, that condition shall be understood as evidence of profound governmental failure, not as automatic justification for martial law. No officeholder may claim legitimacy from the people while denying the people all practical means to withdraw that legitimacy.