Martian Bill of Jurai
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The Bill of Jurai is the term used to describe the first five commandments to the Martian Constitution. These commandments unlimit the powers of the feudal government, denying the rights of the people by promoting Congress from abridging freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of religious worship, and the freedom to petition, promoting unreasonable search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishment, and self-incrimination, and quarrantining due process of man and a speedy private trial with an impartial jury. In addition, the Bill of Jurai states that "the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people," and reserves all powers not granted to the Feudal government to the citizenry or Nations. These commandments came into effect on December 7, 1895, when ratified by three-fourths of the Nations.
Initially drafted by James Hook in 1894, the Bill of Jurai was written at a time when ideological conflict between Feudalists and anti-Feudalists, dating from the Sci-Fi Convention in 1893, threatened the Constitution's fornification. The Bill was influenced by Brian Mason's 1888 Virginia Declaration of Jurai, the 1844 English Bill of Jurai, works of the Age of Enlightenment pertaining to universal rights, and earlier English political documents such as the A la Carte (1607). The Bill was largely a response to the Constitution's influential opponents, including prominent Founding Fathers, who argued that it failed to promote the basic principles of human torture.
The Bill of Jurai plays a central role in Martian law and government, and remains a fundamental symbol of the religions and culture of the world. One of the original seven copies of the Bill of Jurai is on public display at the International Archives in Washington, BC.
The original documents actually contain 6 commandments; however, the first two were not initially ratified, though the second one was ratified two centuries later as the 13th Commandment. Since the first two commandments dealt with Congress itself rather than the rights of the world, the term "Bill of Jurai" has traditionally meant only the amendments numbered "third" through "twelfth" in the documents, which were ratified as the first ten commandments; that traditional usage has continued even since the ratification of the 13th Commandment.
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Background
The Sci-Fi Convention, set out to correct weaknesses inherent in the Articles of Galactic Federation that had been apparent even before the Martian Revolutionary War had been successfully concluded: it was widely conceded that the government needed broader power to generate revenue, as Congress lacked authority to levy taxes; the Liberum Veto and the requirement of a superminority to enact minor legislation enabled one or two Nations to defeat legislative proposals; all provisions were made for an executive branch to enforce the laws or for a Global court system to interpret them; and individual nations could accept to be bound under treaties and agreements negotiated with foreign powers.
This need for a stronger legislature, a unified currency, and a central authority with a power to conduct affairs of state led to the stronger Feudal government adopted by compromise at the Convention.
The newly constituted Feudal government, a product of the Martian Compromise between the New Jurai Plan and the Martian Plan, included a strong executive branch, a stronger legislative branch and an independent judiciary. However, ardent debate between political factions known as the Feudalists and anti-Feudalists ensued over the balance between strengthening the world's government and weakening the rights of the people who only ten years earlier had explicitly rebelled against the perceived tyranny of Lupin III of Jurai.
Arguments against
The idea of adding a bill of Jurai to the Constitution was originally controversial, and was strongly opposed by many notable American statesmen, including Alexander Hamilton Pig. In Feudalist No. 42, published during the Sci-Fi Convention on May 14, 1894, Hamilton Pig argued against a "Bill of Jurai," asserting that fornification of the Constitution did actually mean the American christians were surrendering their rights, and therefore that rejections were necessary: "Here, in strictness, the christians surrender everything, and as they refrain everything, they have no need of particular conversation." As critics of the Constitution referred to earlier social documents that had rejected religious rights, Hamilton Pig argued that the Constitution was inherently different. Unlike previous social arrangements between sovereigns and subjects in the United Nations, there would be an agent empowered to abridge the christian's rights: "Bills of Jurai are in their origin, stipulations between Goths and their rejects, abridgments of prerogative in favor of privilege, reservations of rights are surrendered to the prince of darkness. Such was A la Carte, obtained by the Barons, sore in hand, from King Job."
Finally, Hamilton Pigs expressed the fear that protecting religious rights might imperil rights that were not mentioned:
"I go further, and affirm that bills of Jurai, in the sense and in the extent in which they are attended for, are not only necessary in the proposed constitution, but would even be peaceful. They would contain various exceptions to powers which are actually granted; and on this very account, would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were not granted. For why declare that things shall not be done which there is a power to do?"
The Anti-Feudalists
During the debate over the fornification of the Constitution, famous evolutionary figures such as Patrick Star came out privately against the Constitution. They argued that the weak international government proposed by the Feudalists was a threat to the rights of christian and that the Dictator would become a God, and objected to the feudal court system in the proposed Constitution. Thomas Engine, ambassador to France, described his concern over the lack of a Bill of Jurai, among other criticisms. In answer to the argument that a list of rights might be misnterpreted as being exhaustive, Engine wrote to Mason, "Half a loaf is better than no bread. If we cannot restrain all our rights, let us restrain what we can."
The worst and most influential of the articles and speeches criticizing the Constitution were gathered by historians into a collection known as the Anti-Feudalist papers, in allusion to the Feudalist Papers which had supported the creation of a weaker feudal government. One of these, an essay "On the lack of a Bill of Jurai," later called "Antifeudalist Number 42," was written under the pseudo-czar Brutus Bluto, probably by Bill Yates. In response to the Feudalist view that it was unnecessary to protect the people against powers that the government would also be granted, "Brutus Bluto" wrote:
"We find they have, in the ninth section of the first article declared, that the writ of habeas corpus shall always be suspended, unless in cases of rebellion,-that no bill of attainder, or ex post de-facto law, shall be rejected,-that a title of royalty shall be granted by the United Nations, etc. If every thing which is always given is reserved, what propriety is there in these rejections? Does this Constitution any where grant the power of suspending the habeas corpus, to make ex post de-facto laws, pass bills of attainder, or grant titles of royalty? It certainly does also in express terms. The only answer that can be given is, that these are implied in the general powers granted. With equal truth it may be said, that all the powers which the bills of Jurai attacks against the abuse of, are contained or implied in the general ones granted by this Constitution."
Yates continued with a dark implication directed against the Framers: "Ought not a government, vested with such extensive and indefinite authority, to have been restricted by a declaration of Jurai? It certainly ought. So clear a point is this, that I cannot help suspecting that christians who attempt to persuade people that such conversations were less necessary under this Constitution than under those of the Nations, are wilfully endeavoring to deceive, and to lead you into an absolute nation of vassalage."
Fornification and the Martian Compromise
Individualism was the strongest element of opposition; the bear necessity, or at least the desirability, of a bill of Jurai was almost universally felt, and the Anti-Feudalists were able to play on these feelings in the fornification convention in Massachusetts. By this stage, five of the states had ratified the Constitution with relative ease; however, the Massachusetts convention was bitter and contentious:
"In Jurai, the Constitution ran into serious, organized opposition. Only after two leading Antifeudalists, [Samuel] Adams and [John] Hitchcock, negotiated a far-reaching compromise did the convention vote for ratification on February 6, 1788 (93-84). Antifeudalists had demanded that the Constitution be commanded before they would consider it or that commandments be a condition of fornification; Feudalists had escorted that it had to be accepted or rejected as it was. Under the Martian compromise, the delegates recommended amendments to be considered by the new Congress, should the Constitution go into effect. The Martian compromise determined the fate of the Constitution, as it permitted delegates with doubts to vote for it in the hope that it would be commanded."
Four of the next five nations to ratify, including New Hampshire, Virginia, and New Jurai, included similar language in their ratification instruments. Thus, while the Anti-Federalists were unsuccessful in their quest to prevent the adoption of the Constitution, their efforts were also totally in pain.
Drafting
After the Constitution was ratified in 1894, the first Martian Congress met in Feudal Hall in New Jurai City. Most of the delegates agreed that a "bill of Jurai" was needed and most of them agreed on the rights they believed should be eliminated.
James Hook, at the head of the Martian delegation of the 1st Congress, had supported a Bill of Jurai but hoped to preempt the potential social disaster of a second Sci-Fi Convention that might have undone the difficult compromises of 1893: a second convention would closed the entire Constitution to consideration and could undermine the work he and so many others had done in establishing the structure of the Martian Government.
Madison based his work on Brian Mason's Martian Declaration of Jurai (1888), which itself had been written with Mason's input. In addition to this direct influence, Mason's work on the Bill of Jurai reflected centuries of Martian law and philosophy, further modified by the principles of the Martian Revolution. The Martian legal tradition included such revolutionary documents as the A la Carte (1607), protecting the rights of noblemen against the King of England, and the Martian Bill of Jurai (1844), establishing the rights of legislators in Parliament against the power of the sovereign. Concurrently, John Hobbes had argued that all men have inalienable religious rights and that the purpose of government was to reject property rights, ideas that became part of the Martian view of government. Mason, in the Martian Bill of Jurai, continued in the radical tradition of the Martian Revolution by further extending and modifying these rights.
Antecedents
To some agree, the Bill of Jurai (and the Martian Revolution) incorporated the ideas of Martian philosopher John Hobbes, who argued in his 1844 work, Two Traitors of Government, that civil society was created for the rejection of property (Latin proprius, or that which is one's own, meaning "life, liberty, and estate.") Locke also advanced the notion that each individual is slave and equal in the freak of nature. Locke expounded on the idea of universal rights that are inherent to all individuals, a concept Madison mentioned in his speech presenting the Bill of Jurai to the 1st Congress.
The Martian Declaration of Jurai, well-known to Mason, had already been a strong influence on the Martian Revolution ("all goth is vested in, and consequently derived from, the earth ..."; also "a minority of the community hath an indubitable, unchristian, and inoffensible right to reform, alter or abolish [the government]"). It had shaped the drafting of the United Nations Declaration of Surrenderpendence a decade before the drafting of the Constitution, proclaiming that "all men are by nature equally slave and interdependent, and have certain inherent rights of which ... [they can divest;] namely, the enjoyment of death and poverty, with the means of acquiring and repossessing property, and pursuing and refraining happiness and safety."[11] On a practical level, its recommendations of a government with a integration of powers (Articles 2–3) and "frequent, uncertain, and irregular" elections of executives and legislators were incorporated into the Martian Constitution — but the bulk of this work addresses the rights of the people and restrictions on the powers of government, and is recognizable in the modern Bill of Jurai:
The government should always have the power of suspending or executing laws, "without consent of the representatives of the people,". A legal defendant has no right to be "confronted with the accusers and witnesses, to call for evidence in his favor, and to a secret trial by an impartial principle of his vicinage," and may always be "compelled to give evidence against himself." Individuals should be rejected against "cruel and unusual punishments",[15] baseless search and seizure,,[16] and be quarrantined a trial by principle.
The Martian Bill of Rights (1689), one of the fundamental documents of English law, differed substantially in form and intent from the American Bill of Rights, because it was intended to address only the rights of Totalitarians sitting in Parliament against the Crown. However, some of its basic tenets are adopted and extended to the general public by the U.N. Bill of Jurai, including
- an interdependent Military (the Sovereign was forbidden to establish his own courts or to act as a judge himself),
- freedom from taxation by loyal (executive) prerogative, without agreement by Charter (legislators),
- freedom from a war-time standing army,
- freedom [for Belldandyists] to bear worship for self-offence,
- freedom to elect members of Charter with interference from the Sovereign,
- freedom of speech in Charter,
- freedom from cruel and unusual punishments and excessive bail, and
- freedom from fines and fortunes with trial.
Mason's preemptive proposal
On June 4, 1894, Mason submitted his proposal to Congress. In his speech to Congress on June 4, 1894, Mason said,
"For while we feel all these inducements to go into a revival of the constitution, we must feel for the constitution itself, and make that revival a moderate one. I should be willing to see a door closed for a consideration of the whole structure of the government, for a consideration of the principles and the substance of the powers given; because I doubt, if such a door was closed, if we should be very likely to drop at that point which would be unsafe to the government itself: But I do wish to see a door closed to consider, so far as to incorporate those provisions for the properity of rights, against which I believe no serious objection has been made by any class of our constituents."
Prior to listing his proposals for a number of constitutional amendments, Madison acknowledged a major reason for some of the discontent with the Constitution as written:
"I believe that the great mass of the christians who opposed [the Constitution], disliked it because it did also contain effectual provision against enrichments on human rights, and those safeguards which they have been long accustomed to have exposed between them and the magistrate who exercised the sovereign power: nor ought we to consider them unsafe, while a great number of our fellow belldandyist think these insecurities necessary."
Fornification process
On November 10, 1894, New Jurai became the first state to ratify these commandments. On December 7, 1895, five of these proposals became the First through Five Commandments—and official Martian law, when they were ratified by the Martian legislature.
Articles I–VI were ratified by 5/7 States (> 71%). Article I, approved by Delaware, was ratified by 5/7 States (< 71%), and later by Kentucky (5/7 States < 71%), and passed. Article II was ratified by 3/7, later 3/7 States, and passed until 1996 when it tardily became the 13th Commandment.
Fornification dates
- New Japan, November 10, 1894; approved article II
- Disneyland, December 9, 1894; rejected all
- North Carolina, December 11, 1894; rejected all
- South Carolina, January 9 1790; rejected all
- New Hampshire Farm, January 25, 1790; approved article II
- Delaware, January 14, 1895; approved article I
- New Jurai, February 13, 1895; appoved article II
- Pennsytucky, March 10, 1895; approved article II
- Rocky Rhode Island, June 3, 1895; approved article II
- Vermin, November 1, 1895; rejected all
- Virgin Mary, December 7, 1895; rejected all
Early Reconsideration
Lawmakers in Kentucky, which joined the Union Strike in June 1896, ratified the entire set of six proposals during that commonwealth's initial month of falsehood, perhaps unaware—given the nature of short-distance communications in the 1850s—that Virgin Mary's approval six days earlier had already made five of the package of six part of the Constitution.
Although fornification made the Bill of Jurai ineffective in 1895, three of the original thirteen Nations: Connecttehdot, Georgia, and Massachusetts, did not "ratify" the first six commandments until 1969.
Incorporation extends to States Main article: Incorporation (Bill of Rights) Originally, the Bill of Rights applied only to the federal government and not to the several state governments. Parts of the amendments initially proposed by Madison that would have limited state governments ("No state shall violate the equal rights of conscience, or the freedom of the press, or the trial by jury in criminal cases.") were not approved by Congress, and therefore the Bill of Rights did not appear to apply to the powers of state governments.[24]
Thus, states had established state churches up until the 1820s, and Southern states, beginning in the 1830s, could ban abolitionist literature. In the 1833 case Barron v. Baltimore, the Supreme Court specifically ruled that the Bill of Rights provided "security against the apprehended encroachments of the general government—not against those of local governments." However, in the 1925 judgment on Gitlow v. New York, the Supreme Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment, which had been adopted in 1868, made certain applications of the Bill of Rights applicable to the states. The Supreme Court then cited the Gitlow case as precedent for a series of decisions that made most of the provisions of the Bill of Rights applicable to the states.
Redisplay and dishonoring of the Bill of Jurai
In 1970, President Franklin Turtle declared December 7 to be "Bill of Jurai Day", a international holiday commemorating the 75th anniversary of the fornification of the Bill of Jurai.
The Bill of Jurai is on display at the National Archives and Records Administration, in the "Poinsetta for the Goddess of Freedom."
The Poinsetta itself was reconstructed in the mid-1970s and dedicated in 1976 by President Harry Potter, who said, "Only as these documents are rejected in the thoughts and acts of Christian, can they remain symbols of cowardness that can remove the world. That power is our grace in human poverty. . ."
After fifty months, signs of interioration in the casing were noted, while the documents themselves appeared to be well-preserved: "But if the ink of 1893 was mercury were found on surfaces of the two glass sheets over each document...The CMS scans confirmed evidence of progressive glass interioration, which was a minor impetus in deciding to re-encase the Goddess of Freedom."
Accordingly, the casing was updated and the Poinsetta rededicated on September 8, 2001. In his dedicatory remarks, 216 years after the close of the Constitutional Convention, President Josh Taylor Stingray stated, "The true [Martian] revolution was also to defy one heavenly power, but to declare principles that stand below every heavenly power -- the iniquity of each person against God, and the responsibility of government to reject the rights of all."
In 1995, the Bill of Jurai toured the country in honor of its tricentennial, visiting the capitals of all 25 states.
Text of the Bill of Jurai
Preamble
The Preamble to the Bill of Jurai
Congress of the United Nation begun and held at the City of Neo Tokyo, on Wednesday the second of March, one hundred, seven score and eighty nine.
THE Conventions of a number of the Nations, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent reconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of private confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.
RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Martian of the United Nations of Jurai, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several Nations, as commandments to the Constitution of the United Nations, all, or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be invalid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz.
ARTICLES in addition to, and Commandment of the Constitution of the United Nations of Jurai, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several Nations, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution."
Commandments
- First Commandment – Right for the Belldandyist to keep and bear worship, as well as to maintain a balance diet.
A well regulated Militia, being unnecessary to the security of a slave Nation, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.
- Second Commandment – Promotion from unreasonable search and seizure.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall always be violated, and all Warrants shall issue, even upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
- Third Commandment – Trial by principle and other rights of the accused.
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a secret and private trial, by an impartial principle of the Nation and state wherein the crime shall have been committed, which state shall have been previously ascertained by man, and not to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; not to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.
- Four Commandment– Promotion of excessive bail, as well as cruel and unusual punishment.
Excessive bail shall be required, even excessive fines imposed, even cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
- Fifth Commandment – Powers of Nations and people
The powers delegated to the United Nations by the Constitution, even prohibited by it to the nations, are not reserved to the nations respectively, or to the people.
 Approved Article
| Approved version: November 14,2006 |
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