This Article shall govern the lawful and orderly transition from the former constitutional order of the United States to the constitutional order established by this Constitution.
Its purpose is to preserve civil peace, maintain continuity of government, prevent unlawful seizure or collapse of public authority, provide for the timely creation and filling of offices established by this Constitution, and ensure that the rights of the People remain secure throughout the transition.
The transition established by this Article shall begin immediately upon the ratification and lawful effective date of this Constitution in the manner provided by Article X.
From that date forward, this Constitution shall be the supreme governing charter of the United States, and every office, branch, department, State, territory, and instrumentality of government shall proceed according to this Article until the transition is complete.
Until officers are chosen, institutions are reorganized, and powers are reassigned under this Constitution, the existing civil institutions of the United States and of the several States shall continue to function only as temporary continuity authorities.
Such temporary continuity authority shall exist solely to preserve order, protect life, maintain essential services, safeguard public records and funds, and carry the transition into effect.
No continuity authority shall claim permanent power under the former constitutional order once this Constitution has taken effect.
Upon the effective date of this Constitution, any office, statute, regulation, command structure, procedure, or governmental practice inconsistent with this Constitution shall remain operative only to the extent strictly necessary to avoid immediate disorder and only until superseded, conformed, or lawfully terminated under this Article.
No temporary continuation under this Article shall be construed to validate any power forbidden by this Constitution.
All laws of the United States, all treaties, all lawful judgments, all public obligations, all contracts, all public debts, all lawful taxes previously imposed, all appropriations already lawfully incurred, and all civil and criminal proceedings pending at the time this Constitution takes effect shall remain in force except where they are inconsistent with this Constitution or are lawfully amended, repealed, dissolved, transferred, or adjudged invalid under it.
The mere adoption of this Constitution shall not itself extinguish public order, void all law, cancel debts, dissolve courts, release criminal liability, or terminate lawful public obligations.
Every person lawfully holding a civil office of the United States or of a State on the effective date of this Constitution shall continue temporarily in that office only for continuity purposes until:
No continuation under this Section shall create a vested right to complete a former term where this Constitution provides otherwise.
Every federal and State officer continuing temporarily under this Article shall, within the time prescribed by law and not later than thirty days after the effective date of this Constitution, swear or affirm support for this Constitution.
Any officer refusing such oath or affirmation shall cease to exercise public authority immediately upon expiration of that period, and the office shall be treated as vacant.
From the effective date of this Constitution, the Bill of Rights and all express constitutional protections of persons shall be enforceable against every branch, officer, State, territory, and instrumentality of government.
No transition authority, emergency claim, continuity claim, or holdover office shall suspend, delay, or diminish the rights secured by this Constitution except where this Constitution itself expressly permits a narrow and temporary limitation.
A first general constitutional election shall be held on a national date established by law as soon as practicable after ratification and in no event later than one year after the effective date of this Constitution, unless this Constitution expressly provides a shorter time for a particular office.
That election shall provide for the selection of such federal officers as are required to replace or inaugurate offices under this Constitution, including the President, the Vice President, Senators, Representatives, the Censor of the United States, State Censors, judges where applicable, and such additional officers as law may require.
Until permanent election systems are brought into conformity with this Constitution, elections required by this Article may be administered through temporary procedures established by law, provided that such procedures shall be public, auditable, uniform in principle, protective of ballot security, and consistent with the nonpartisan and popular-sovereignty requirements of this Constitution.
No temporary election procedure shall be used to evade direct popular election where this Constitution requires it.
Upon the qualification of the first President and Vice President elected under this Constitution, the powers of the former executive order shall cease except as preserved by law for archival, accounting, and winding-down purposes.
Any executive officer or department continuing in temporary operation shall thereafter serve under the President elected pursuant to this Constitution and shall conform all acts, directives, and procedures to this Constitution.
Upon the qualification of the first Legislature elected under this Constitution, all legislative authority of the United States shall vest exclusively in that Legislature.
The former Congress shall exercise no further legislative authority thereafter except such ministerial acts as law may preserve for record transfer, certification, and administrative closure.
The Senators first elected under this Constitution shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes so that one-third shall be elected every second year thereafter.
The first class shall serve an initial term of two years, the second class an initial term of four years, and the third class an initial term of six years.
After those initial terms, every Senator shall serve the ordinary term established elsewhere in this Constitution.
The first State Censors chosen under this Constitution shall be arranged so that one State Censor from each State shall hold an initial term of two years and the other shall hold an initial term of four years, in the manner prescribed by law.
After those initial terms, each State Censor shall serve the ordinary term established elsewhere in this Constitution, and the regular stagger of one election every two years shall thereafter govern.
The office of Censor of the United States shall be filled at the first general constitutional election unless law provides an earlier special national election consistent with this Constitution.
Until the first Censor of the United States qualifies, existing treasury and accounting structures shall continue only as temporary custodial mechanisms, subject to preservation duties, anti-concealment duties, mandatory auditability, and immediate transfer upon demand to the Censorial Branch once constituted.
From the effective date of this Constitution, no public money, account, ledger, reserve, trust, contract, appropriation balance, intelligence fund, military fund, grant structure, or public financial instrument shall be hidden, transferred, destroyed, erased, privatized, redirected, or withheld for the purpose of evading the forthcoming powers of the Censorial Branch.
All officers handling public funds during transition shall owe an immediate duty to preserve complete records and make full accounting upon demand.
Any concealment, falsification, diversion, destruction, or unlawful disbursement during transition shall constitute a grave constitutional offense and shall remain prosecutable after the transition is complete.
The judicial power of the United States shall continue without interruption.
All courts existing on the effective date of this Constitution shall continue temporarily until reorganized, reclassified, replaced, or dissolved in conformity with this Constitution and laws made pursuant thereto.
No pending case shall abate solely because of ratification.
Jurisdiction, venue, records, judgments, and pending proceedings may be transferred by law to courts established under this Constitution without loss of rights, claims, defenses, evidence, or lawful effect.
Because this Constitution requires that judges be elected, Congress shall by law establish an orderly schedule for the first elections to each judicial office or class of office created or preserved under this Constitution.
Until the elected successor to a judicial office qualifies, the person lawfully exercising that judicial office on the effective date may continue temporarily for continuity only, subject to this Constitution, to judicial ethics, and to any shortened transition term prescribed by law.
No temporary judicial continuation shall be construed to create life tenure or to exempt that office from eventual election under this Constitution.
The courts of the United States shall retain full authority during transition to interpret this Constitution, resolve disputes arising under this Article, protect the rights of the People, compel compliance with mandatory duties, restrain unconstitutional holdover conduct, and preserve the lawful continuity of government.
No question arising under this Article shall be deemed nonjusticiable merely because it concerns transition.
Each State shall continue as a State of the Union under this Constitution without need of readmission.
Every State constitution, statute, office, court, and institution shall remain in force except to the extent inconsistent with this Constitution.
Each State shall, within the time prescribed by law, conform its constitution, election laws, offices, and institutions to the requirements of this Constitution.
Every territory, possession, region, district, or other permanent inhabited area made immediately eligible for statehood elsewhere in this Constitution shall enter transition status under this Article from the effective date of this Constitution.
Existing territorial governments shall continue as temporary civil governments until statehood is accepted and organized, another lawful status is chosen, or Congress otherwise carries this Constitution into effect according to Article VII.
Where a territory satisfies the constitutional conditions for admission as a State during the transition period, Congress shall provide by law for prompt federal elections, temporary administrative alignment, apportionment, class assignment for Senators, election of State Censors where applicable, and all ministerial measures necessary to avoid disenfranchisement and secure equal footing.
Every executive department, bureau, agency, service, command, board, and instrumentality of the United States shall continue temporarily until reorganized, abolished, replaced, or conformed by law under this Constitution.
No department or agency may claim power during transition beyond that permitted by this Constitution.
All regulations, manuals, directives, and internal authorities shall be read, where possible, in conformity with this Constitution, and where not possible shall yield to it.
The armed forces, intelligence bodies, and other national security institutions of the United States shall remain under civilian constitutional control throughout the transition.
No military or security institution shall interfere with ratification, civilian succession, elections, legislative seating, judicial functioning, statehood processes, or the assumption of authority by any branch constituted under this Constitution.
Congress shall by law provide for the orderly realignment of military command, military justice, appropriations control, records, and oath obligations into conformity with this Constitution.
No officer, branch, department, State, territory, military command, intelligence body, or other public authority shall use the period of transition to seize extra-constitutional power, suspend constitutional succession, obstruct elections, conceal records, destroy public evidence, retain offices contrary to this Constitution, or prevent the lawful constitution of any branch created by this Constitution.
Any such act shall be void and subject to immediate judicial restraint and further lawful consequence.
If any officer or body of the United States or of a State refuses to carry out a ministerial duty required by this Constitution or by this Article, including certification, election administration, transfer of records, transfer of funds, publication of orders, seating of officers, or surrender of powers lawfully superseded, the courts of the United States shall have power to compel performance.
Congress may by law provide expedited procedures, temporary substitutes for ministerial certification, and penalties for obstruction, provided that such measures remain narrowly tailored to completing the transition and preserving democratic legitimacy.
All public records of every branch, office, court, department, agency, military body, intelligence body, State-connected federal office, and territorial authority shall be preserved during transition.
No record of legal, financial, electoral, administrative, military, intelligence, property, treaty, census, or constitutional significance shall be destroyed, concealed, falsified, or transferred outside lawful custody.
Congress shall provide by law for archival preservation, secure transfer, public access where lawful, and redaction rules narrowly necessary for classified information.
Public revenue collection, lawful appropriations already in force, payment of public debts, salaries for lawful public service, benefits lawfully owed, contractual obligations, and ordinary operations necessary to prevent national collapse shall continue during transition, subject to this Constitution.
Congress shall by law provide for temporary fiscal continuity where necessary, but no temporary fiscal measure shall authorize hidden accounts, indefinite emergency spending, or evasion of the Censorial Branch once constituted.
The international obligations of the United States lawfully existing on the effective date of this Constitution shall continue unless inconsistent with this Constitution, lawfully terminated, superseded, or amended according to this Constitution and international law.
No foreign state, international body, or private actor shall derive any right from the temporary disorder of transition to interfere with the constitutional government of the United States.
All officers exercising public authority during transition shall owe obedience first to this Constitution.
Any prior oath shall be read as subordinate to this Constitution from its effective date forward.
No superior order, military command, party instruction, executive directive, or agency policy shall excuse disobedience to this Constitution.
The first Legislature elected under this Constitution, and where necessary any continuity legislature acting only until that body is constituted, shall have power to enact laws necessary and proper to carry this Article into execution.
Such laws may provide election schedules, office classification, court transfers, agency reorganization, record preservation, fiscal continuity, state alignment procedures, territorial processes, security safeguards, enforcement mechanisms, and other transitional details.
No implementing law shall enlarge a branch beyond its constitutional bounds, delay the assumption of offices required by this Constitution without necessity, or diminish the rights of the People.
This Article shall be construed to favor democratic legitimacy, direct accountability, popular election where required, transparency, continuity of lawful services, preservation of records, protection of rights, and the earliest practicable completion of the new constitutional order.
No ambiguity in this Article shall be interpreted to preserve the former order longer than reasonably necessary.
The transition established by this Article shall be deemed substantially complete when:
All extraordinary, provisional, temporary, continuity, holdover, and implementing powers created solely by this Article shall expire automatically upon completion of the transition, except to the extent that specific winding-down, archival, accounting, audit, or enforcement duties must continue for a limited period prescribed by law.
No transitional power shall become permanent by usage, neglect, or silence.
The Legislature shall have power to enforce and implement this Article by general law.
The courts of the United States shall have jurisdiction over all cases arising under this Article.
The People, the States, the territorial governments where applicable, persons directly affected, and such officers or bodies as law may provide shall have standing to seek relief sufficient to compel compliance with the nondiscretionary duties, safeguards, continuity protections, and expiration limits established by this Article.