Residential Security Act (Makko Oko)

Residential Security Act
Citation	2022 c. 17
Enacted by	Emperor Conall Solis
Date enacted	July 10th, 2022
Date effective	July 10th, 2022
Related legislation
ID Act
Status: Current legislation

The Residential Security Act (c. 17) is an Act of the Monarch of Makko Oko which was decreed on July 10th, 2022 and came into force the same day. The act requires all non-government citizens and visitors to provide accepted reasons to law enforcement officers before they are authorized to leave their city of residence. It also mandates that anybody above the age of 10 obtain and hold a Public Identity Card, established under the statute. The law has been protested by many as an act of corruption, control and as an act of civil rights violations. There have been multiple cases on the RSA, however, it has successfully stood in its original form for years. The RSA was enacted after mass protests in response to the 3rd Revision of the Basic Rights, the nation's Constitution, which converted the Constitution from a document guaranteeing certain rights to not be violated, into a document merely establishing the structure of government.

Legislative History

Prior to considering the RSA, the case of Erma Barrows v. Makko Oko was in progress. When the case concluded with the original presiding judge, Karen Hall, they had ruled in favor of Erma Barrows, and the case was then seized by the Ministry of Justice, one of the rare times a case is seized and audited by them, who ultimately ruled in a majority ruling that minimum wages were legal, even though the Basic Rights at the time had restricted all non-enumerated rights.

Cases

Chapman v. Makko Oko

On February 17th, 2023, private citizen Felix Chapman petitioned the Supreme Court of Makko Oko to hear a lawsuit filed against the government, accusing them of causing an undue burden and financial damages upon their employment and quality of life through the enforcement of Section II of the RSA. The court accepted the petition in an unanimous decision and heard oral arguments in April. A month later on May 4th, 2023, the court ruled 5-2 in favor of the government in Chapman v. Makko Oko, citing that while an undue burden was proven by the plaintiff, the need for security and defense far outweighed that of a private interest, adding that Section II was constitutional and a "just limitation" of the freedom of movement.

[Diplomat Name] v. Makko Oko

[Diplomat name] was subjected to a vehicle search at a CEC checkpoint on October 24th, 2022 and their vehicle was a diplomatic vehicle belonging to [nation name]. The diplomat claimed that the officers gained access to confidential government files and that the search was conducted by intelligence officials for use against their government which His Emperor's Government strongly denied. On October 30th, the diplomat petitioned the Supreme Court for an emergency hearing and demanded that the officers and agencies involved hand over all documents to the government and to destroy any and all copies made of it. The court accepted the petition and heard arguments by both sides on November 4th, 2022, however a ruling would not be handed down until December 19th because of a revision made mid-way through discussions. They held 4-3 in a highly contentious ruling in favor of the government that the Constitution did not make diplomats immune to authorized government searches, however, they did agree that the diplomats' vehicle should not have been searched and ordered the government to turn over any and all documents pertaining to their government from the search over to them and to destroy any copies. Constitutional experts suggested that the ruling was hard to make partially due to the issue at hand of diplomatic immunity and just what they were immune from.

The ruling did not change enforcement of the RSA on foreigners, instead only prohibiting law enforcement from duplicating, touching or seizing documents from diplomatic vehicles during a search, unless it can be proven that proof of a crime was on them.

Sections

Section I - Establishment of Public Identity System

Section I established what the government titled the "Public Identity System", establishing the Public Identity Card (PIC), the national ID and the Citizen's Employer Identification Permit, or CEIP. A CEIP verifies and authenticates employment at any entity located within the empire, and is required for ones' employment to be legal, helping to curb illegal and under-the-table employment. Finally, it established the Household Identification & Joinment System, or HIJS, which is a record of residents in ones home and is used to constantly keep up with a citizens' current residence.

Section II - Freedom of Movement

Section II restricted the freedom of movement for all persons subject to the laws of the empire. The freedom to travel to cities other than your own was restricted to where a law enforcement officer, under this section, has to permit you to leave your city of residence upon providing them with a reason deemed suitable by them. In addition, it defined the use of the CEIP in the freedom of movement, exempted government officials from this section and established the Public Identity Card as the document that establishes the resident city. Finally, it established that slaves were not permitted to leave their city without an escort from law enforcement or their owner, however, this article has not been enforced much since the Slaves Act was ratified.

Section III - Issuance of CEIP

Section III established how CEIP's are to be issued, with the CEIP in itself being established under Section I under the whole Public Identity System. It mandated that CEIP's expire immediately upon exit from employment and that they are to be renewed on a yearly basis, with only those signed with a notarized signature of a top official in the employer and a signature from a law enforcement officer deeming it valid.

Section IV - Non-Citizen Circumstances

Section IV sets out the specific circumstances and regulations for non-citizens, which were too subjected to this act. It set out that a non-citizen PIC could be proof of residency for a permanent resident, established a non-citizen CEIP to be renewed once every 6 months for foreign workers, and set out how Section II was to be enforced upon non-citizens.

Section V - Household Identification & Joinment System

Section V established the provisions for the implementation of the HIJS.

Section VI - Established Crimes

Section VI sets out crimes specific to the RSA and its establishments that would be enforced by the government, specifically the crimes of not holding a PIC, not holding a CEIP, having an invalid or out of date HIJS record, and in some cases leaving a city without proper authorization.

Enforcement

Road sign when you are nearing a city entrance checkpoint

The RSA was enforced by the national government until the Act of Union 2027 was ratified, where enforcement of the RSA was handed off to the provinces with approval of the Privy Council and a regulation promulgated by the Minister of Internal Security. Currently, the RSA is enforced by the provincial governments and police services, while in the Phoenix Islands, the CCS still has enforcement authority. Section II of the RSA can be found enforced on roads near city limits, and there is usually one city entrance checkpoint, or CEC, per city, unless a road nears two or more city limits, then one or two CEC's can be used to cover those cities.

The Ministry of Energy, Infrastructure & Environment in collaboration with the Ministry of Internal Security has established a road sign that is displayed whenever one nears a CEC, and there is usually one lane for each lane on the road connected to it, with the typical setup being a three-lane exchange, with a small parking lot adjacent to it that you park in upon request of a presiding law enforcement officer. Emergency vehicles are allowed to bypass CEC's, and sometimes one may find a CEC with a dedicated emergency vehicles lane, however these are uncommon due to their abuse whenever they exist.

Section II enforcement took about a year and a half, with the last CEC being opened for operation on April 9th, 2024.