The Acting President Amendment 2025

The Acting President Amendment 2025

Passed by the Senate on 12 November 2025 and Ratified on 17 November 2025.

Preamble

Whereas the Line of Succession has to be patched with respect to the resignation issue;

Whereas it has been shown that Acting Presidents are a commonality nowadays in SimDem;

Be it enacted by the Senate of SimDemocracy:

Article 1: Amendment to Part 2, Article 5, §5 of the Constitution

§1. Part 2, Article 5, §5 of the Constitution is amended to the following:

§5. Should the President become incapacitated - due to inactivity, resignation, or otherwise — they shall be replaced as described in Part 9, §8–10 of the Constitution.

§5.1. Should the President’s incapacity be temporary the acting official shall not hold the office of President but instead the office of “Acting President”, which shall retain all of the responsibilities and powers associated with the presidency other than the official title and the power to appoint a new Vice President, should that role also be vacated.

§5.1.1 A person who assumes the duties of Acting President is automatically placed on temporary suspension from the powers and duties of their other office for the duration of the acting service. They may not exercise any authority, powers, prerogatives, or vote of that office while Acting President.

§5.1.1.1. Suspension is defined as a temporary cessation of the powers and duties of an office without creating a vacancy and without terminating the incumbent’s title to the office.

§5.1.1.2. The incumbent retains the title to the office and remains the lawful office-holder.

§5.1.1.3. The incumbent may not exercise any authority, powers, prerogatives, or vote of the suspended office while suspended.

§5.1.1.4. The term of office continues to run, and seniority accrues uninterrupted as if continuously holding the office.

§5.1.1.5. Compensation and benefits of the office continue unless a statute expressly provides otherwise.

§5.1.1.6. For any multi-member body (e.g. the Supreme Court or the Senate), a suspended member is treated as absent for quorum and voting of that body for the duration of the suspension; the seat remains filled.

§5.1.1.7. Suspension alone does not constitute removal, discipline, or a finding of misconduct, and may not be used as a ground for disqualification from future service.

§5.2. Upon the President’s return to duty, the Acting President immediately ceases acting and is reinstated to their suspended office with all rights, status, and seniority intact as if continuously holding that office during the suspension.

Article 2: Amendment to Part 9, §8–10 of the Constitution

§1. Part 9 §8–10 of the Constitution is amended to the following:

§8. The President’s position shall be filled for the duration of their incapacity via the schedule described below, skipping any person who declines the role:

§8.1. Vice President.

§8.2. Speaker of the Senate.

§8.3. Executive Officers, ranked by seniority in their present executive office (measured from the date they most recently assumed that specific office; service in any other executive office does not count).

§8.4. Senators, in order of placement in the last Senate election.

§8.5 Supreme Court Justices, ranked by seniority on the Supreme Court (measured from the date they most recently assumed their seat; prior judicial service in any other court does not count).

§8.6. Judges, ranked by seniority in their present judgeship (measured from the date they most recently assumed that judgeship; prior judicial service in a different judgeship does not count).

§8.7. Discord Supervisor.

§8.8. Reddit Supervisor.

§9. Where two or more persons are otherwise equal in seniority within the same category listed in §8.3–§8.6, their rank for purposes of §8 shall be determined in the following order. At each step below, apply the stated criterion to all persons still tied. Any person with a strictly superior result under that criterion ranks ahead of those with inferior results and is removed from the tied cohort for the remainder of this procedure. All persons who remain exactly tied after applying a criterion proceed together to the next step. Continue until a complete order is obtained or until §9.2.2/§9.3 requires random resolution. The order is as follows:

§9.1. The person who received the Discord role denoting the present office earlier on the same assumption date ranks higher.

§9.2. If still tied, and the office is elected, rank by the greater sum of weighted scores.

§9.2.1. If still tied, rank by the greater sum of unweighted scores.

§9.2.2. If a tie persists among two persons, resolve by a coin flip conducted by the Discord Supervisor. If a tie persists among three or more persons, resolve by a random drawing of lots conducted by the Discord Supervisor, producing a random ordering of all remaining tied persons, who shall be ranked in the order drawn.

§9.3. If any tie remains among persons holding unelected offices, resolve as follows:

§9.3.1. If two persons remain, by coin flip conducted by the Discord Supervisor;

§9.3.2. If three or more persons remain, by a random drawing of lots, conducted by the Discord Supervisor.

§10. Once a person is ranked above others at any step, that placement is final and is not reconsidered at later steps of this procedure.

§10.1. The ordering produced under Part 9, §8–9 is final only for the specific invocation of §8–9 that necessitated it.

§10.2. Upon any subsequent invocation of §8-9, including a new vacancy or incapacity, the entire procedure in §8–9 shall be rerun from the start, using the then-current records and seniority.

§10.3. Any random resolution (coin flip or drawing of lots) shall be conducted anew for each invocation; no prior random result binds a later invocation.

§10.4. For each invocation, the relevant timestamps, certifications, and logs are those as they exist at the time §8–9 is triggered.

§11. A government official shall be considered incapacitated if they meet one or more of the following conditions:

§11.1. They have publicly declared their incapacity;

§11.2. They have been inactive for a continuous period of 24 hours without prior notice and have not designated a temporary replacement; or

§11.3. They are banned, suspended, or otherwise removed from the official SimDemocracy platforms in a way that prevents them from fulfilling their duties.