Executive Act 2023

Explanatory notes

This law was created by the Statute Law Revision Act 2023 to consolidate the following legislation:

• Executive Orders Act 2022

• Presidential Succession Act 2022

• New Executive Structures and Powers Act 2023

• POWER Act 2023

• Partnerships Order 2023

• Mod Perms Order 2023

Part 1: The President

Article 1: Acting President

§1. Should the President be temporarily unavailable, then the next available member in the line of succession under Schedule 1 of this Act shall become Acting President.

§2. The Acting President shall not hold the office of President and shall cease holding the powers and duties of the office once the President is available again.

Article 2: Presidential succession

§1. Should the President be permanently unavailable or resign, then the next available member in the line of succession under Schedule 1 shall become the new President.

§2. Should the next member available under Schedule 1 hold a position incompatible with the presidency, they shall either resign from their position or decline to be President.

§3. Should there be no one available in the line of succession to be able to, or be willing to, hold the office of the President (or otherwise be Acting President), an emergency presidential election shall be held.

Article 3: Executive orders

§1. The President shall be the only member of the executive to possess the power to enact, amend, and repeal Executive Orders, unless statute law provides for otherwise.

§2. All Executive Orders must follow the formatting rules set under the Statute Law Revision Act 2023.

§2.1. Executive Orders shall not be considered invalid merely on the basis of incorrect formatting.

§3. The President shall be given broad discretion over the content of Executive Orders, but Executive Orders cannot conflict with the common law, statute law, court orders, the Constitution, or the Terms of Service.

§4. The Senate shall have the power to:

§4.1. Amend or repeal Executive Orders,

§4.2. Compel or mandate the issuing of certain Executive Orders by law, and

§4.3. Restrict the discretion given under §3 of this Article by law.

Part 2: The Cabinet

Article 4: The Cabinet

§1. The Cabinet shall consist of the President, the Vice President, and Executive Officers appointed by the President.

§2. An Executive Officer is a person who heads a Department and is appointed by the President with approval from the Senate.

§3. The President shall also have the power to appoint non-Executive Officers into the cabinet.

§4. The President and Executive Officers shall have the power to hire staff to assist with their departmental duties.

§5. All Executive Officers shall serve until resignation, impeachment, or dismissal by the President.

§5.1. An Executive Officer’s term shall not be considered automatically extinguished on the election of a new President.

§6. All Executive Officers, their staff, and non-Executive Officer cabinet members shall be given the necessary permissions to conduct their duties.

Article 5: The Department of Justice

§1. The Attorney General shall be the leader of the Department of Justice.

§2. The Attorney General shall be given authority to hire state attorneys and prosecutors to work for the Justice Department and represent SimDemocracy in any legal matter.

§3. The Attorney General may also hire record keepers to work for the Department of Justice.

§4. The sitting President or Vice President may not concurrently be the Attorney General.

Article 6: The SimDemocracy Bureau of Investigation

§1. The SimDemocracy Bureau of Investigations, henceforth referred to as the SDBI, shall be the internal policing force of SimDemocracy and serve under the Department of Justice.

§2. The SDBI shall be led by the SDBI Director who shall directly serve under the Attorney General.

§3. The SBDI Director shall be given the authority to hire agents to serve in the SDBI and perform policing duties.

§3.1. Save for an Executive Order providing or restricting otherwise, the SDBI Director shall have the discretion to create a system of hierarchy and ranks to organise SDBI agents.

§4. The SDBI may conduct lawful investigations, searches, and the arrest of citizens.

§4.1. Both the Attorney General and the SDBI Director can call for an investigation.

Repealed

§4.2. In order to conduct a search on a person before they are arrested, the investigator must obtain a search warrant from a judge.

§4.2. In order to conduct a search, the SDBI must obtain a search warrant from a judge, unless the information being searched is available to the public, or logged in the message logs.

§4.3. In order to conduct an arrest, agents must obtain an arrest warrant from a judge.

§4.3.1. A warrantless arrest may be conducted if the suspect poses a clear and present danger.

§4.3.2. If an agent is otherwise unable to conduct an arrest despite having a warrant, the relevant Discord Supervisor and their assistants must assist with the arrest.

§4.4. A person must be told what they are being charged with when they are arrested. When a warrantless arrest is conducted, the Department of Justice will have 24 hours to press charges unless a warrant is granted by a Judge before the 24 hours expire. or the person in custody must be let go.

§4.5. “Arrests” in this Section shall mean a muting of a member from all channels of the SimDem Discord Server except for the holding cell specified in §8, judicial channels where the member has ongoing proceedings, and any other channel which the Director of the SDBI or the President may specify, and the removal of post and comment permissions on Reddit.

§4.6. The SDBI shall have the power to search non-person entities such as businesses and government agencies after obtaining a search warrant from a Judge specifying the relevant entity to be searched.

Repealed §5. The SDBI shall have the power to issue tickets for any criminal offence under the Criminal Code that expressly gives them that authority.

§5.1. A person muted as a result of a ticket shall be muted from all chats except from the relevant judicial channels to allow them to appeal.

§6. The SDBI and any other official with the requisite permissions shall have the power to preliminarily ban individuals to remove them from the associated Discord server and to mitigate damage caused in times of civil unrest.

§6.1. Civil unrest shall include, but is not limited to mass spamming, mass pinging, Discord Terms of Service violations, and raiding.

§6.2. Actions taken under this section shall be amenable to judicial review by the Inferior Court.

§6.3. The power under this section shall only be considered exercised if it does not fall under a power granted by the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2023.

§7. The SDBI shall have the power to delete images and messages that are deemed too extreme or inappropriate for the associated Discord server or relevant channel.

§8. The Director of the SDBI shall cause a channel named holding-cell to be set up and maintained in such a manner that only the staff of the Department of Justice, the President and Vice-President, and any other person who is legally required to have access to the channel are able to view the channel, read its history, and send messages within it.

§8.1. Any attorney or person purporting to represent an arrested client, and having relevant business within the holding cell, may be granted access by the Director of the SDBI, with the consent of the Attorney-General, for up to 24 hours per entry.

§8.1.1. Relevant business shall include, but not be limited to:

The investigation of whether a client has been mistreated within the holding cell. The reviewing of messages sent by a client, if such messages are related to a case against their client. Any other business which the Director of the SDBI considers relevant.

§8.1.2. Any attorney or person purporting to represent an arrested client who is requesting access to the holding cell must make a declaration, under penalty of perjury defined in article 18 of the Criminal Code, that they do represent a client presently arrested, and shall also provide the username(s) and user ID(s) of clients they purport to represent.

§8.1.3. In this Subsection and §8.4, “Access” shall mean the ability of a member to view a channel, send messages within it, react to messages and read its history.

§8.2. Any denial of access under §8.2 shall be amenable to Judicial Review.

§8.3. The Director of the SDBI, with the consent of the Attorney-General, may also, in his discretion, provide access for any person to the holding cell.

§9. Any person who has been arrested may be barred from accessing the holding cell established in §8, or any other channel which the person is able to access due to §4.5, on approval from a Judge, if they have committed a crime while arrested.

§9.1. The person’s access may be removed before a Judge approves such a request if the person continues to commit crimes after being told to stop. If a Judge denies such a request when a person has had their access removed, their access must be immediately restored.

§9.2. In this section, the word “Access” shall refer to the permissions to send messages, create threads and react to messages in the stated channels.

Article 7: Department of State

§1. The Department of State shall be in charge of expanding, managing, and resolving foreign affairs under the direction of the President.

§2. The Department of State shall be headed by the Secretary of State.

§3. The Department of State shall have the power to negotiate partnerships with other communities, which shall allow a link of that community’s server to be posted in the relevant Discord channel.

§3.1. All partnerships must be ratified by an Executive Order or a motion by the Senate.

§3.2. An Executive Order or a motion by the Senate may abolish a partnership.

§4. The Department of State shall have the power to negotiate treaties and alliances.

§4.1. All treaties and alliances must be ratified by the appropriate medium, be it Executive Order, statute, or a constitutional amendment.

Article 7a - The Department of Voter Registration

§2. The Department of Voter Registration (DVR) shall be created and maintained by the President.

§3. The DVR shall be led by the Secretary of Voter Registration (SVR).

§4. The SVR shall have the authority to appoint officers to handle the business of the DVR.

§5. The President shall act in the authority of the SVR if the office of the SVR is empty.

§6. The work of the DVR shall be governed by the Immigration and Citizenship Act 2024.

Article 9: Non-statutory departments

§1. Non-statutory departments are executive departments not covered under this Act.

§2. Non-statutory departments shall function, with the same corresponding powers, structures, and duties, as if they were a department established under this Act.

§3. The President shall have the power to establish, regulate, and abolish non-statutory departments through Executive Orders.

§4. No non-statutory department shall be assigned portfolios, powers, and duties already assigned to statutory departments prescribed under this Act.

Article 10: Interpretation

§1. Any reference to an abolished department or Executive Officer shall be construed as referencing the most appropriate executive department, statutory or non-statutory, as prescribed under this Act.

Part 3: Schedules

Schedule 1: Presidential line of succession

• Vice President

• Speaker of the Senate

• Cabinet Members in order of appointment

• Further Senators in order of placement in the last Senate election

• Further Justices in order of seniority

• Judges in order of seniority

• Discord Supervisor

• Reddit Supervisor

• Supervisor of Elections