Hello dudes, duets, and toasters of Firestone. The Honorable AJSC Danny here with a nice little guide on how to make your petition actually matter!
Firstly, let’s establish that like 98% of the petitions here (even the serious ones) don’t matter because they’re worded badly, sent to somebody that doesn’t have a duty to comply with it, make no sense, or are just generally useless.
This is BOR.III;
Citizens have the right to petition against the government or any other business or agency without fear of punishment for doing so. The government is not obliged to act on petitions, although are obliged to give a response at thirty (30) signatures, and Congress shall be willing to consider creating appropriate legislation at one-hundred (100) signatures.
Now firstly, despite what that shabby first line says, the way petition formats constitutionally work in Firestone are very clearly geared to petitioning for legislative change, hence the part about Congress. So really, petitioning to anyone but Congress is kinda pointless; such as petitioning the Governor or Judicial Branch for example. Since they can’t make legislative change, they just have to respond. And also since “…obligated to give a response at thirty signatures…” isn’t that defined, their response can be “k,” and they’ve legally done their duty. So let’s go over some don’ts here:
- Don’t petition to a specific department for something to be done inside that department
- Don’t petition to a specific department for something to be done in another department (DPS)
- Don’t make a petition for someone (excluding the department head) to be fired in a department
- Don’t petition to get your court case accepted (people have legit done this before)
- Don’t petition to do something to a department not controlled by the government (FES)
- Don’t petition to ban someone
- Don’t petition to unban someone
- Don’t petition to do anything that only the devs can do (they don’t have to listen at all); if it’s an improvement suggestion, label it as so
- Don’t petition to appoint someone (Congress doesn’t have the legal authority to create an appointment, therefor they physically can’t make legislative change on it)
- Don’t petition to impeach a GO with a long rambling paragraph, and no evidence (legal, but no one will listen)
Note: I’m well aware this doesn’t even scrape the surface of the bad petitions, and that list will probably be added onto later. But a good rule of thumb is, if it looks like any these, it’s probably wrong.
I bet someone people are now asking, “Well what the hell can I petition for?” Here’s a nifty list:
- Impeachments
- Legislative change (new bills, removing/amending old ones, amending the constitution, etc.)
- Congressional regulation towards departments (the proper way of fixing a large department issue)
- A Congressional investigation into something
Now, let’s talk about how to make these types of petitions. In law, everything matters down to a coma. So the way you word your petition could mean how effective it is, as in the real and virtual world, a government is not going to do a even moderately hard task without being forced to! Below are some basic formats that should close any loopholes one could use to discredit your petition.
Impeachment
Petition to the State of Firestone Congress for the Impeachment of [GO]
By [you]
Citizens and Congress of Firestone, [GO] has committed x offence(s) that are unlawful, or infringe upon our rights! so on so on (Your preamble needs to be like a call to arms)
Here is proof of him/her committing these acts (and an explanation if need be):
Summary/conclusion
Please comment support below!
Creating New Legislation
Petition to the State of Firestone Congress to Make a Bill/Act to [x]
By [you]
Citizens and Congress of Firestone, x issue has been plaguing us and needs to be solved! so on so on
Examples of what problems a bill for this would solve
Summary/conclusion
Please comment support below!
Amending/Removing Legislation
Petition to the State of Firestone Congress to Amend/Remove (one or the other) [x] bill/act (link to bill/act)
By [you]
Citizens and Congress of Firestone, this bill/act needs to be changed/removed to better suit our State’s needs! so on so on
Examples of what specific issues there are with this legislation
Summary/conclusion
Please comment support below!
Note: This format also applies to amending the constitution. You just need to change the title to “…Amend/Create Article [x] Section [x] of the Constitution,” and apply the rest as such.
There you have it citizens of Firestone. By using these basic formats and making your wish clear and precise, you can make change in our great state! If you have any questions, message me here or on Discord.
Signed,
The Honorable DannyboyLaw
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court