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The Scenario Library

Constitutional provisions under pressure — from ordinary governance to institutional crisis. Start with the introductory scenario below. It gives a broad picture of how the system works and why it was designed this way.

54Total scenarios
13Categories
123Provisions referenced
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The First Twelve Years

Three sovereign countries decide to become one Republic. The ratification vote creates the new constitutional order in a day. Making that order work takes a generation.

Read The First Twelve Years →

Browse by constitutional question

Choose a situation below. All 54 scenarios remain available; each is a literary test of the constitutional framework.

Transition & Ratification · 2

Use this if: how a constitutional order becomes a functioning government.

About 21 min · Transition & Ratification

The First Twelve Years

Three sovereign countries decide to become one Republic. The ratification vote creates the new constitutional order in a day. Making that order work takes a generation.

§19.1 · §19.2 · §19.3 · §19.5 · §19.6 · §19.7 · §19.9 · §19.10 · §11.2 · §1.7 · §16.1 · §16.2 · §2.6.a · §5.1.b
About 11 min · Transition & Ratification

The First War

Day 41 of the Transition Window. A neighboring state invades before the permanent Legislature or Legat Consul can exercise the Republic's ordinary defense powers. The constitutional test is not only whether the Republic can fight, but whether it can keep becoming a constitutional government while it does.

§19.2 · §19.3 · §19.3.a · §19.5 · §2.2 · §14.1 · §14.5 · §7.2
Everyday Governance · 1

Use this if: public institutions in an ordinary week.

About 10 min · Everyday Governance

Ordinary Law

Four people. One week. The Federated Republic doing what it was designed to do.

§12.1 · §6.3
Legislature & Lawmaking · 5

Use this if: bills, vetoes, overrides — the lawmaking machine.

About 6 min · Legislature & Lawmaking

The Organized Third

Year 4. Citizens — not States, not governments — organize a §13.1 petition against the Residency Verification Enhancement Act. Phase One requires geographic spread. Phase Two requires 5% nationally. The Elections Panel screens eligibility and administers the referendum. The Act is repealed. The Legislature re-enacts a revised version. Citizens may petition again.

§13.1 · §6.1 · §6.2 · §1.6
About 6 min · Legislature & Lawmaking

The Second Path

Year 8. Citizens fed up with six years of Assembly inaction on electoral finance reform launch a §13.2 Citizen Legislative Initiative. The two-phase petition takes 15 months. The Legislature receives the proposal with a 90-day deadline. The Assembly fails to pass it. The initiative goes to a national referendum. 63% vote yes on 57% participation. The lawful provisions take effect; the SC strikes down the matching-fund appropriation. The Assembly then passes a competing bill.

§13.2 · §8.1 · §11.1 · §9.1.a · §13.1
About 8 min · Legislature & Lawmaking

The Direction

Year 3. The Civic Consul issues a written direction suspending a prosecution against a political ally. The direction is published to the NRS within the hour. What happens next tests whether transparency alone is sufficient protection — and what the constitution does when it is not.

§2.15 · §2.8 · §2.12 · §2.6 · §9.1.b · §7.10 · §17.4 · §9.5 · §4.5
About 3 min · Legislature & Lawmaking

The Recalled Senator

Year 6. Delvane invokes its recall mechanism against Senator Cyrus Veld. He disputes the procedure. The federal constitution does not adjudicate state recall law — but it does recognize its result.

§3.2 · §3.5 · §7.6 · §10.1
About 6 min · Legislature & Lawmaking

The Severed Clause

Year 14. A citizen initiative wins sixty-four percent. A property owner challenges its warrantless-entry clause. The courts preserve the lawful regulatory provisions while removing the conflict with Article I.

§13.2 · §4.5 · §1.7 · §7.3 · §1.1 · §13.1
Dual ExecutiveTwo separately selected executives with enumerated, non-overlapping domains — neither one is head of government alone. · 8

Use this if: two executives, one government — the seams and the shared ground.

About 7 min · Dual Executive

The Formation

A general election leaves the Assembly split four ways. Twenty-one days pass with no Civic Consul. The office does not fall vacant, and no one seizes it — the constitution turns the deadlock into a national election and hands the choice to the people.

§2.6.a · §2.6 · §2.7 · §7.4 · §2.5
About 5 min · Dual Executive

The Coalition

The Assembly has the votes to remove the Civic Consul. It does not have the votes to agree on who comes next. Under a constructive vote of no confidenceThe Assembly can only remove a Civic Consul by naming their replacement in the same vote., that is the same as having no votes at all.

§2.6 · §2.6.a · §2.5 · §3.2
About 5 min · Dual Executive

The Stalemate

Year 7. A ratified defense treaty needs domestic infrastructure funding. The Civic Consul objects to the proposed budget, the Legat Consul insists on the treaty timetable, and the Legislature must decide how to appropriate. Coordination supplies a forum, not a new executive power.

§2.14 · §2.14.a · §2.4 · §3.7 · §10.1 · §4.5
About 7 min · Dual Executive

The Alliance Clause

Year 6. Halvern — a treaty ally — is struck in a sustained attack by Rendath forces. The Legat Consul deploys immediately under §14.4: Senate ratification of the mutual defense treaty already constitutes legislative authorization. Eight senators petition the SC to determine whether the treaty's trigger conditions were actually met. The SC's review is narrow by design.

§14.4 · §14.2 · §14.1 · §3.6 · §9.1.b · §2.2 · §9.5
About 10 min · Dual Executive

The Twenty-Four Hours

The Council of Ministers determines that the Civic Consul is temporarily unable to exercise authority. He restores himself once after twenty-four hours. When the same incapacity recurs inside ninety days, the Council must reach two-thirds, restoration requires broader agreement, and the SC becomes available to police misuse.

§2.16 · §2.6 · §10.1
About 5 min · Dual Executive

The Changed Mission

Year 8. The Halvern Strait escorts are succeeding, but the Legat Consul now proposes a shore-based training mission. The Senate demands an updated plan. An expanded mission requires a new law and appropriations, while military command remains with the Legat Consul.

§2.2 · §12.2 · §14.1 · §14.2 · §14.4
About 7 min · Dual Executive

The Vote

The Legislature passes a bill. The Civic Consul returns it within 10 business days. Tabled for one month — bypass-proof. The Senate tries for 2/3. Falls short. The bill must pass both chambers again. A reconsideration notice is issued earlier in the same review window. The Assembly Speaker declines to pause the review. What each instrument does, what each silence means, and how the mechanisms interact.

§2.7 · §3.1 · §2.5 · §9.1.b · §12.6 · §2.6
About 7 min · Dual Executive

The Objection

Year 5. The Universal Care Expansion Act passes both chambers with strong majorities — a fifteen-year social state expansion covering three new medical categories. The Civic Consul doesn't suspensive-veto it. She issues a reconsideration notice under §2.7, recommending two specific revisions to keep the expansion inside structural balance. The Assembly Speaker declines to pause the review period. The law takes effect as passed. The recommendation is permanent.

§2.7 · §12.1 · §12.2 · §9.1.b
Elections & Campaigns · 4

Use this if: ballots, thresholds, and the money around them.

About 5 min · Elections & Campaigns

The Harder Ballot

Year 7. Neldrath State introduces in-person biometric verification that reduces rural NVS access by 41%. Citizens challenge under §1.8. The Elections Panel opens a separate §11.3 compliance audit. Two constitutional mechanisms converge on the same violation.

§1.8 · §11.3 · §7.2 · §11.2 · §9.1.a · §11.1
About 6 min · Elections & Campaigns

The Waiver

Year 13. The consular election produces a candidate with 47 percent of first preferences — and 61.8 percent after final-round transfers. Under §7.1, a national RCV majority at or above 60 percent waives the State plurality qualification. She carried pluralities in only 19 of 50 States. The runner-up's campaign petitions: the waiver, they argue, means first preferences. The text says otherwise.

§7.1 · §7.2 · §7.3 · §11.2 · §17.1 · §8.2
About 6 min · Elections & Campaigns

The Ledger

Year 12. Eight months before the Assembly elections, the Elections Panel's routine disclosure audit flags a pattern in a Senate campaign's ledger: 214 individual contributions, each just under the statutory cap, all from employees of the Marveth Logistics Group, clustered across nine days. §8.1 prohibits corporate contributions. It also prohibits anonymity — which means the scheme's own camouflage was published to the NRS, one record at a time.

§8.1 · §8.2 · §11.1 · §9.1.c · §1.5 · §2.15
About 5 min · Elections & Campaigns

The Graduation

Maret Ven graduates from Halvern University, takes a job in Delvane, and moves across state lines. Ten months later there is a federal election. She wants to vote. The National Voting System, residency rules, and §1.8 under ordinary pressure — no crisis, just the system doing what it is supposed to do.

§1.8 · §11.2 · §11.1 · §7.2
Judiciary · 3

Use this if: courts, nominations, and the limits of review.

About 7 min · Judiciary

The Holdout

Year 7. Associate Justice Halden dies in office. The Senate Judiciary Committee Chair announces no hearings until after the Year 8 general election — nine months away. Day 120 arrives with no vote. What §4.4 and §4.4.a require at every step, and why a Senate that says nothing is constitutionally different from a Senate that says no.

§4.4 · §4.4.a · §7.3 · §9.4.a · §8.1
About 4 min · Judiciary

The First Nomination

Year 2. The first SC vacancy. The Civic Consul nominates from the Elections Panel-maintained Judicial Pool. The Senate votes 41-59 — short of the majority required. What happens next.

§4.4 · §9.4.a · §9.8 · §3.5 · §4.4.a
About 3 min · Judiciary

The Cause

Year 10. A Supreme Court justice is accused of serious undisclosed financial misconduct days after authoring a bitterly unpopular constitutional ruling. The evidence may justify removal. The politics may not.

§4.3.a · §7.10 · §9.1
Monitors & Accountability · 5

Use this if: the watchers — findings, removals, and teeth.

About 3 min · Monitors & Accountability

The Critical Finding

Year 11. The LM identifies systematic overstatement of revenue projections. The Legislature must publish a response within the statutory period, but may disagree with the finding and choose its own policy. A separate suspension procedure protects oversight from retaliation.

§9.5.a · §9.7.a · §9.1.a · §10.1 · §9.1.d
About 6 min · Monitors & Accountability

The Suspension

Year 8. Both executives file removal grounds against the Legislative Monitor General. She keeps her authority while the filing is pending. The question goes to the public — and the clock starts running against the people who filed it.

§9.9 · §9.7.a · §7.3 · §9.2 · §9.1.e
About 5 min · Monitors & Accountability

The Deadlock

Year 5. The EM Monitor General's term ends. The Assembly Speaker and Senate Speaker cannot agree on a nominee. Sixty days pass. The constitution removes the decision from them.

§9.3 · §9.1.d · §9.8 · §7.6
About 5 min · Monitors & Accountability

The Long Count

Year 9. The JM Monitor General lottery selects a candidate. The public rejects her. Then rejects the next. The system absorbs both failures without pause. The third draw produces a JM Monitor General the Republic can confirm.

§9.3 · §9.1.d · §9.4 · §9.8 · §7.6
About 9 min · Monitors & Accountability

The Three Recusals

The same fact pattern lands on three desks in the same month. A legislator, a Monitor General, and a senior procurement director each discover that a decision in front of them touches a financial interest they hold. The duty to disclose and recuse is identical for all three. The machinery that enforces it is not — and the Monitor General's case is the one with no colleague above her to check the work.

§7.10 · §9.9.a · §7.13 · §9.9 · §3.4 · §4.5
The Public Record · 3

Use this if: the nrs — what must be published, and what happens when it isn't.

About 6 min · The Public Record

The Classification

Year 9. An internal audit of the coastal radar procurement finds a 40 percent cost overrun and an undisclosed contractor relationship. The Legat Consul's office classifies the audit, citing the operational-security ground. A staff member publishes a minority report. The EM assesses the classification. A court asks the only question §10.2 allows: was classification required to protect national security?

§10.2 · §10.1 · §9.5 · §9.1.b · §9.1 · §7.10
About 6 min · The Public Record

The Redaction

Year 26. A procurement file hits its twenty-five year ceiling and the executive that classified it extends it five more. A researcher does not challenge the extension. She asks for the parts that were never the secret — and the reasons for every line withheld.

§10.2 · §9.1 · §1.1 · §10.1
About 3 min · The Public Record

The Three Hours

Year 6. The Legat Consul dies during an NRS outage. The succession happens immediately. The public record catches up three hours later.

§2.9 · §7.15 · §10.1
Fiscal & Monetary · 4

Use this if: budgets, floors, and the equalization queue.

About 6 min · Fiscal & Monetary

The Contraction

Year 11. The Veltane corridor closes to Republic freight and the commodity index drops 31 percent in a quarter. Federal revenue falls 14 percent across three quarters. The Monetary Authority certifies Severe Revenue Contraction, and §12.4 does what it was written to do: the National Endowment begins disbursing to the National Revenue Fund for social-state obligations, automatically, while the Legislature argues about everything else.

§12.4 · §12.1 · §12.1.a · §12.2 · §9.1.b · §12.3
About 2 min · Fiscal & Monetary

The Automatic Floor

Year 7. The budget deadline passes without an enacted budget — the first time. No announcement. No emergency. The interim automatic appropriation takes effect by constitutional operation at midnight. What continues. What stops.

§12.2 · §4.5 · §9.1.a · §3.10
About 6 min · Fiscal & Monetary

The Formula

Year 8. The EM's annual fiscal equalization review certifies that Evantine Territory and Norrath Territory lack the fiscal capacity to fulfill their §12.1 social state obligations — 23% and 14% below threshold, respectively. The applicable statute gives the Legislature ninety days to publish a response. The Legislature responds. The formula works on paper. One year later, Evantine still cannot deliver universal healthcare coverage to all residents. What the constitution requires — and where it runs out.

§12.6 · §12.3 · §12.1.a · §12.1 · §9.1.a · §12.4 · §1.1
About 3 min · Fiscal & Monetary

The Rate

Year 12. The Monetary Authority raises rates into a weak economy. The elected branches hate the decision and discover that controlling an institution's structure is not the same thing as controlling its judgment.

§12.1 · §4.5 · §7.5 · §7.14 · §3.9
Immigration & Rights · 4

Use this if: two gates, one person — sponsorship meets certification.

About 12 min · Immigration & Rights

The Return

A legal resident with valid work authorization leaves the Republic for a weekend visit. She is not permitted back in. The government invokes national security — her family holds a senior position in a foreign government the Republic is in active diplomatic dispute with, and the Legat Consul has determined she may pose a risk to the community. She says the real reasons are her religion, her family name, and her face on the national news the week before. The constitution has something to say about all of it.

§6.2 · §1.6 · §1.5 · §5.2 · §6.1 · §2.1 · §1.16.a · §1.7 · §1.1 · §4.5
About 5 min · Immigration & Rights

The Unremovable

Year 5. Davan Iskal's residency certification is revoked for documented fraud, and a final removal order issues. His state of origin has ceased to function; no third country will accept him; the one government that offers to take him is the reason he cannot be sent. He is also the subject of a security assessment. §6.3.a was written for exactly this man — the case with no good outcome, where the constitution's floor is actually tested.

§6.3.a · §1.18 · §6.2 · §1.10 · §6.3
About 3 min · Immigration & Rights

The Sponsoring State

Year 4. A State legislature passes an act purporting to revoke State sponsorship for 340 existing residents. Legal residency is federal once the two-stage process is complete — a State's sponsorship role then ends.

§6.1 · §6.2 · §1.6 · §4.5
About 4 min · Immigration & Rights

The Citizen

A records error becomes a constitutional question when a birthright citizen is told to naturalize before casting her first vote.

§5.1 · §5.1.a · §1.8 · §5.1.b · §1.1 · §11.2
Indigenous & Minority Rights · 2

Use this if: sovereignty that precedes the republic.

About 6 min · Indigenous & Minority Rights

The Founding Choice

The founding admission period, on the ratified implementation schedule. Every recognized indigenous nation must decide the status it will hold: default into Associated Community sovereignty, or integrate as a Territory with the road to Statehood open. The Corrin Nation is divided, the clock is running, and a federal transition officer has just made an offer that the constitution forbids him to make.

§16.2 · §16.1 · §15.6 · §16.5 · §20.4 · §20.3 · §15.2 · §15.9
About 6 min · Indigenous & Minority Rights

The Departure

Year 14. The Vaskeld Nation gives notice that it is terminating its Compact with the Republic. As an Associated Community, its right to end association cannot be vetoed by the Republic — no vote of the Legislature, no permission, no cause required. What follows is not a fight over whether Vaskeld may leave, but over everything that must be untangled before it can: shared infrastructure, cross-border obligations, and the twelve thousand Vaskeld members who are also, citizens of the Republic.

§20.4 · §20.5 · §5.1 · §16.2 · §20.3 · §16.1 · §20.1
Rights & Emergency Architecture · 4

Use this if: the floor that does not move, even in a crisis.

About 4 min · Rights & Emergency Architecture

The Second Declaration

Year 3. A fourteen-day regional derogation expires. Three days later the Civic Consul repeats the same restrictions under a different label. Mandatory expedited review tests the prohibition on substantial repetition and a separate discrimination violation.

§1.16 · §1.16.a · §4.5
About 3 min · Rights & Emergency Architecture

The Finality Act

Year 8. The Legislature declares intelligence-based residency denials unreviewable. A permanent resident denied renewal with no reason, no hearing, and no forum petitions the SC directly. The Act is void to the extent it eliminates the forum.

§4.5 · §6.1 · §1.1 · §2.1
About 3 min · Rights & Emergency Architecture

The Void Exception

Year 18. The Republic's fourth constitutional amendment is procedurally valid — two-thirds legislative approval, Popular Ratification, every procedural threshold met. It also contains a 90-day habeas carve-out for security detentions. The SC reviews the amendment and voids the habeas carve-out.

§17.3 · §1.10 · §1.16.a · §17.1
About 6 min · Rights & Emergency Architecture

The Order

Year 9. The Director of Intelligence transmits the Legat Consul’s order for the rendition of a suspected foreign agent to a third country without judicial process. Lieutenant Commander Vesh Pola, assigned to execute the order, refuses — the rendition would violate §1.1 and §6.2. §2.8 protects her refusal. Her superior initiates disciplinary proceedings. §2.8's second sentence has something to say about that.

§2.8 · §1.1 · §6.2 · §9.1.b · §2.3 · §1.7 · §10.2
States & Territories · 9

Use this if: statehood, mergers, secession — the federation's edges.

About 3 min · States & Territories

The Map

Year 2. A State submits its Assembly district map. The LM finds two districts fail the compactness criterion. The finding is informational. Any citizen may challenge a map, and the Elections Panel supplies an interim compliant map where one fails.

§3.3 · §9.1.a · §4.5 · §11.1
About 3 min · States & Territories

The Audit

Year 3. Velmora completes its second Statehood Audit on time. The Monitor findings supply the record; an affirmative legislative determination supplies the decision. An inconclusive vote and a missed deadline have different consequences.

§15.2 · §15.2.a · §9.1.a · §9.1.c · §3.5
About 3 min · States & Territories

The Petition

Year 7. A State that has been a net federal redistribution contributor initiates voluntary devolution — conversion from State to Territory status. The constitutional requirements, the negotiation, and what devolution actually means.

§15.4 · §15.5 · §3.5 · §12.1 · §15.2
About 6 min · States & Territories

The Sixty Percent

Year 12. A geothermal reserve lies beneath National Trust land. The Senate affirms the Legat Consul’s treaty-withdrawal notice, and both chambers approve removing designation. The national vote still falls short of the sixty-percent requirement.

§18.4 · §18.1 · §1.15 · §3.6
About 4 min · States & Territories

The Third Strike

Year 15. Valdrath receives its third consecutive failed biennial audit determination. The Senate separately places it into Provisional status. State and federal advisers assist remediation, and Valdrath later chooses a voluntary devolution referendum that its voters reject.

§15.1.a · §15.3 · §15.2 · §15.4 · §4.5
About 6 min · States & Territories

The Administrator

Year 7. Haverford State has refused NVS compliance for three consecutive years. The cure period expires. The Elections Panel announces it will administer the federal election in Haverford directly. Haverford petitions the SC. The election proceeds anyway. The votes are valid regardless of the outcome.

§11.3 · §7.2 · §11.1 · §1.8 · §4.5 · §3.10
About 5 min · States & Territories

The Referendum

Year 9. Carenthal holds an independence referendum. 61.3% in favor, 62.1% participation. Both thresholds met. The Elections Panel certifies and publishes to the NRS. The State may not withdraw the petition while the process continues. What the constitution requires next — and what it prohibits.

§15.9 · §11.1 · §10.1 · §2.14 · §2.1 · §2.5
About 4 min · States & Territories

The Restoration

Year 21. In an alternative Valdrath timeline, two consecutive biennial audits receive affirmative legislative determinations of compliance. The second determination automatically restores ordinary State status; there is no separate readmission vote.

§15.2 · §15.3 · §15.1.a · §9.1.a · §9.1.c · §3.5 · §15.4
About 9 min · States & Territories

The Prior Claim

Year 9. Halvern refuses to integrate its highway system with the federal network. Its legal argument is the most ambitious a State has ever made to the SC: it entered the Republic as a sovereign, it never gave up that sovereignty, and it should hold the same compact-level relationship as indigenous nations. Chief Justice Diallo writes for a unanimous Court.

§19.6 · §3.10 · §12.5 · §15.8.a · §16.1 · §15.7 · §16.2 · §4.5