Closing Statement
CLOSING STATEMENT
The Judicial Standards Amendment Act (JSAA), duly passed by both chambers of Congress, was designed to align our judicial framework with the new constitution and the removal of obsolete, duplicated provisions.
Timeline
The following timeline shows that the JSAA has met all things necessary for it to pass into law.
Date | Action |
~ 25 February 2025 | Passage through House |
~ 26 February 2025 | Passage through Senate |
28 February 2025 | President notified of passage by the Senate President |
05 March 2025 | JSAA was erroneously put to public referendum |
07 March 2025 | Referendum complete. |
08 March 2025 | New constitution is in effect, now governing document. |
14 March 2025 | JSAA passes into law. Assent is assumed. |
16 March 2025 | President is informed. |
30 March 2025 | FCR 31 filed. |
What requires a referendum?
The Defence’s reliance on a public referendum is legally baseless.
The governing document at the time that the referendum was posed was the old constitution.
The governing document at the time that the referendum was completed was the new constitution.
Regardless, neither of these constitutions required a referendum of the JSAA.
Old Constitution Requirements for Referendum | New Constitution Requirements for Referendum |
Complex Change | Constitutional Change |
A complex change includes the following and needs to be discussed with the Owner before being signed by the President:
1. Changes to the System of Government.
1a. Affect the distribution of power between different parts and levels of the state.
1b. Changes to Government Departments.
1c. Significant changes to the system by which the state is governed in general.
2. Plugin-related changes.
3. Changes involving significant staff involvement.
4. A Rights & Freedoms change. | Any change to the constitution. |
The JSAA amended only the Judicial Standards Act, not the Constitution, and made no structural, rights-based, or technical changes. The bill explicitly required the Commonwealth of Redmont Constitution Act to pass in order for the JSAA to be enacted — meaning any changes in the JSAA only took effect
after the Constitution changed, further limiting any legal impact it could have had alone.
What does the JSAA change?
With the triggers for a referendum in mind, lets summarise what the JSAA does.
What complex changes does it make? | What Constitutional changes does it make? |
The JSAA does not make any complex changes.
The JSA Amendment Act simply does not amend anything but itself, it simply amends the JSA.
All constitutional changes are made by the Commonwealth of Redmont Constitution Act.
The JSAA only removes sections which were made redundant when the new constitution came into effect.
The JSAA was only able to pass IF the Commonwealth of Redmont Constitution Act passed. This was a condition to it being enacted in the bill.
Therefore, there is absolutely no way possible that the JSAA could make any complex changes.
Therefore:
1. No systems of government were changed by the JSAA.
2. The Staff Team testifies that there were no plugin related changes required by this act.
3. The Staff Team testifies that there were no significant staff actions required by this act.
4. No rights or freedoms are amended by this act.
5. Any changes in this act are actioned by the new constitution's passage and removed as duplicate information by the JSAA. | The JSAA does not amend the constitution.
The JSA Amendment Act simply does not amend anything but itself, it simply amends the JSA.
All constitutional changes are made by the Commonwealth of Redmont Constitution Act.
The JSAA only removes sections which were made redundant when the new constitution came into effect.
The JSAA was only able to pass IF the Commonwealth of Redmont Constitution Act passed. This was a condition to it being enacted in the bill.
Therefore, there is absolutely no way possible that the JSAA could make any change to the new constitution.
On the passage of the new constitution, the JSA immediately lost it's constitutional status and became a regular statue. Nothing could have been changed in the JSA until the new constitution was enacted. |
Addressing the Defence's Claims
On 'the JSAA says that it amends the constitution in the long title'
This argument misrepresents legislative convention and reflects the legal reality that, at the time, the Judicial Standards Act (JSA) was embedded within the Constitution. However, the new constitution made the operative changes to the constitution and the JSAA simply removed the duplicated information after the new constitution was enacted. The JSAA merely removed now-redundant language and made no change to the constitution.
On Ex Post Facto
The Standardised Criminal Code Act explicitly limits the scope of ex post facto protections to criminal actions. S4(a) states:
"Individuals cannot be subject to punishments for criminal actions if it was not illegal at the time it was committed."
This clause confines the ex post facto principle to criminal liability. The Judicial Standards Amendment Act (JSAA) is not a criminal statute, nor does it impose any form of punishment retroactively.
On Judicial Activity Requirements
The new Constitution overrides the JSA by setting its own playtime criteria, making the JSA’s legally redundant. The JSAA removes these from the JSA.
If you are suggesting that there is a clash between the JSAA and the Constitution, then the JSAA is only more redundant as the new Constitution supersedes the requirements of the JSAA.
JSAA/Old Constitution | New Constitution |
The following requirements exist in order to be nominated to the bench:
Chief Justice - has accrued 150 hours and 12 hours of playtime in the last 30 days
Justice - has accrued 125 hours and 12 hours of playtime in the last 30 days
Judge - has accrued 72 hours and 12 hours of playtime in the last 30 days | (3) Qualifications for nomination:
(a) Chief Justice: 150 hours of total active playtime.
(b) Justice: 125 hours of total active playtime.
(c) Judge: 72 hours of total active playtime.
Makes JSA requirements redundant by superseding them. |
In Closing
The Defence’s few submissions have lacked both legal reasoning and any form of clarity throughout this case. Rather than answering the constitutional questions at the heart of this case, the President and his administration have demonstrated a concerning misunderstanding of the legislative process and pushed a significant amount of irrelevant narrative.
The Defence has failed to establish any lawful basis for classifying the JSAA as a complex change nor a constitutional change. This Court must reaffirm that laws passed according to constitutional process are binding and not subject to executive veto by omission, delay, or invented procedure.
The Defence has invested considerable time and effort into obstructing the implementation of an Act which does nothing more than remove redundant and superseded provisions from a non-constitutional law.
I respectfully ask that the Court take into account the time, qualifications, and sustained effort I have committed over the past two months in holding the government accountable, and that it award costs accordingly to reflect the burden I have undertaken in pursuing this matter in the public interest.