Ideas for Kansas Legislation

11/06/99 7:38 PM

These ideas were selected as some of the better ideas for constitutional legislation in Kansas. We believe these ideas will help protect the citizens of Kansas and protect their rights. These ideas were selected by a coalition of organizations that met on September 25, 1999. This is only a draft version of the ideas: some in the coalition are opposed to the current draft of certain ideas. We hope to have improvements completed soon.

  1. Commodity scrip. Commodity scrip shall be lawful as warehouse receipts for agricultural products and other raw materials. Kansas shall provide a seal that will be placed only on commodity scrip that meets minimum requirements for security (the product will be maintained for a specified period of time), availability of the commodity (for delivery), accrued storage costs, and guarantees, or lack thereof, of condition of the commodity. The scrip, both sealed and unsealed, may be traded by citizens without restriction. The scrip may be used by farmers like "money" that can be traded for supplies they need to continue farming during difficult economic times. The scrip will protect farmers by maintaining value even if inflation of the dollar becomes a problem.

    2. It shall be a felony to sell commodity scrip for commodities that are not in the possession of the seller.

     

  2. Education. Only parents of children currently enrolled in the schools may serve as school board members in that school district. (This will be substantially revised.)

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  3. Special Interest Legislation. Legislators may not vote on any special interest issue of interest to a company from which they have received campaign funds.

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  4. Court reform. The jury instructions used by first Chief U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Jay shall be read to the jury in every jury trial without addition, subtraction, or explanation. Otherwise the court decisions shall be invalid and the defendant(s) shall be reimbursed their expenses. John Jay, first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, charging the jury in Georgiav. Brailsford, 3 Dallas 1,4 (U.S. 1794): "That in criminal cases, the law and fact being always blended, the jury, for reasons of a political and peculiar nature, for the security of life and liberty, is intrusted with the power of deciding both the law and fact."

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  5. Election Reform. For all computers or other devices used for tabulating or recording votes the programming logic must be made available to the public at the cost of the lowest cost media for transmitting the logic. This includes copyrighted programs. All voting devices must create a permanent paper record of all votes at the precinct at the close of the polls. Any and all connections to outside computers or devices via phone or other means must provide for recording all communications during the polling, and this recording must be made available to the public at reasonable cost. Each voter must be provided the ability to audit his own votes after the election, to ensure his vote was tabulated correctly. One method would be to issue each voter a unique id number that he can use at the public library or county seat after the election to view the votes recorded for that id number.

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  6. Deaths involving law enforcement. In any case resulting in the death of a person in Kansas and involving federal agents, foreign agents, or military personnel, the County Sheriff shall direct or monitor all collection of evidence, and shall maintain records of all evidence. Obstruction of the Sheriff in this duty by any person shall be a felony.

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  7. Recognition of legitimate law enforcement officers. In any case of law enforcement personnel entering a home, apartment, or private property forcibly or with weapons ready, they must be in uniform and easily identifiable in case any should be involved in wrongdoing. Any law-enforcement personnel involved in such action with their face covered or identity hidden shall be guilty of a felony. It shall be a felony for any masked person to force entry into a home against the wishes of the owner or occupants.

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  8. Self Defense. In accordance with the Constitution of Kansas every citizen has the natural, or God-given, right to defend themselves and their families with firearms and may use deadly force if necessary to protect life or limb, and all rulings of the courts in opposition to this right of every individual citizen are null and void. (Kansas Bill of Rights Section 4: "The people have the right to bear arms for their defense and security; ….")

    9. No restriction is allowed of a citizen's right to purchase or possess firearms in their homes, land, or rented property. Any laws, regulations or other restrictions in these places are null and void. The exceptions may be only in cases of specified mental illnesses, cases of felons convicted of a violent crime, or juveniles less than the age of the militia as specified in Article 8 of the Constitution of Kansas. In no case may firearms be restricted for more than 5% of Kansas citizens.

     

  9. Campaign Reform. Only electors of the voting district may contribute to a political campaign. 
  10. Lobbying Reform. No governmental entity may fund lobbying efforts for or against any public law or public action. No governmental employee may be paid for a day's work when testifying before the state legislature except when subpoenaed.

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  11. Constitutional Authority. Every bill must cite the specific constitutional authority for the bill, or it shall be null and void. Riders must be germane and must cite constitutional authority.

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  12. Regionalism. Governmental entities, quasi-governmental entities, and regional governments which control jurisdictions or territory outside of Kansas shall have no governmental authority within Kansas, in accordance with Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution of the United States.

 

Your assistance in developing these ideas would be appreciated. You may direct your comments to Glen Burdue at glenlb@horizon.hit.net