State of Caution and Emergency Amendment 2025

State of Caution and Emergency Amendment

Passed by the Senate on 12 August 2025 and ratified by public referendum on 16 August 2025.

Article 1: Amendment §1. A new Part 8 shall be created in the Constitution, which shall read:

Part 8: State of Caution and Emergency
Article 31: Implementation
§1. The President may authorize or revoke authorization for the use of the following powers in relation to the Core Territories, if satisfied that there is or is likely to be significant destabilisation on SimDemocracy that requires some management to ensure the stability of the community and the democratic institutions of SimDemocracy:
  (a) The Confinement of new members in the Core Territories to a specific area for new members;
  (b) The implementation of an application for new accounts to enter the Core Territories, which shall be managed and operated by the competent authorities as prescribed by law;
  (c) The temporary removal of permissions on the Core Territories for a period of time not exceeding 48 hours;
  (d) The lockdown of the Core Territories, preventing new members from joining, for a period of time not exceeding 48 hours.
  §1.1. In exercising their powers under §1(b), the competent authority may be given the power to accept or reject accounts attempting to join in accordance with standards prescribed by law.
§2. Before authorizing the use of these powers, the Senate must pass a resolution authorizing this use, and a Supreme Court Justice must approve the use.
  §2.1. If the President is satisfied that the urgency of the destabilisation requires the immediate use of these powers, they may authorize the use of them preemptively, but if the requirements under §2. are not satisfied within 48 hours, the use of these powers must be immediately discontinued.
  §2.2. The Senate may further restrict or regulate the President’s use of these powers through legislation, including imposing time limits on how long certain powers may be used.

§2. The current Part 8 shall be renumbered to part 9.

§3. A new §2.1 shall be created in Article 29 of the Constitution:

“§2.1. Despite the above, the right to Freedom of Expression and the right to Liberty and Security of the person shall not apply to emergency powers utilized pursuant to Article 31 of the Constitution.”

Explanatory Statement:

This bill remediates the constitutional issues surrounding the State of Caution and Emergency Act. The Act was possibly justified by the existence of a “Public Interest” clause in permissible infringement, which has since disappeared from the constitution. Therefore, as the act permits –

(a) The closing of or restrictions upon invites;

(b) The ability of OHS agents to reject members who do not adequately complete the join application; and,

(c) The restriction of post and comment permissions on the reddit,

it is likely unconstitutional, pursuant to Article 22 of the Constitution, owing to it being a suppressionary measure. This bill therefore seeks to remediate this issue.

Explanatory Notes:

Article 1 provides an amendment to the constitution relating to emergency powers. It authorizes the president to confine members in a section of the server (the Border, pursuant to power (a) of the State of Caution and Emergency Act (“SCEA”); implement a join application, pursuant to power (f) of the SCEA, revoke link, image, invite or such other permissions, pursuant to power (c) of the SCEA, and implement a lockdown, pursuant to an Emergency power under Article 2 §5(d) of the SCEA. It also provides that the Senate may regulate the use of the powers (for instance, to prevent the President from misusing the preemptive authorization, or introducing maximum durations before the state of caution must be renewed), and provides the manner for authorization (resolution of the Senate, approval by Supreme Court). Article 2 exempts the powers from the Protection of Rights.