The Gaian Constitution (6/9) Judiciary

I love political science, and so for fun I decided to draft a modified version of the US Constitution to better reflect the new issues of a modern era. This project was not intended to be disrespectful to the current Constitution, it was meant as a tribute following in the same patriotic spirit.

The name comes from Gaius Gracchus, one of Ancient Rome’s greatest progressive reformers along with his brother, Tiberius. The header image for these posts comes from my love of rabbits. I thought a white rabbit would be an interesting symbol for a grassroots movement as a nod to Alice in Wonderland (“follow the white rabbit”), also rabbits eat grass (so grassroots), and are individually weak yet good at multiplying into something greater.

This is merely a first draft, and I’d love to get feedback for how to improve on it if anyone has any suggestions they’d like to share.

Article V: The Judicial Branch of Government

Judicial Power shall be delegated from the People and divided among the 4 High Courts and Supreme Council. Each High Court shall have its own specific jurisdiction and be comprised of 13 members each. To serve as a Federal Court Judge one must be a Citizen with a permanent residency for the last 15 years and be at least 40 years of age. Serving as a Federal Court Justice means one may not run for any other public office again, nor accept any lobbying jobs for the remainder of their life. Judges at all levels may serve for 18 year terms with no option for renewal.

Federal judges shall be appointed via Demarchy/Sortition of all qualified candidates who choose to opt into the selection process.

1. The High Court of Discipline: Military tribunal for wrongdoing committed during war.
   
   
2. The High Court of Justice: Court of last resort for civil and criminal law.
   
   
3. The High Court of Integrity: This is the Court which judges cases of impeachment or general wrongdoing concerning the President, Consul, or any other executive and legislative magistrates. Administrative disputes between States, States and Federal governments, or federal government officials.
   
   
4. The High Court of Transparency: Auditing Public Expenditures.
   
   
5. The Supreme Council of the United States: The only Court which may make new and binding interpretations of Constitutional law or intention. It has 13 permanent members who, besides rendering a verdict, also decide which cases the court will hear. This court also contains 12 extra members for deciding verdicts. These additional 12 members are made up of 3 Justices each from the other four Federal courts, with rotating participation from each of the total 52 High Court Justices. In this way, important Constitutional decisions shall not be decided upon by a mere 9 people.