Shawn Hilton's Blog

December 2030

Article Number: 233887506543

Amendment to Article #13896506543 Also known as the Shaper Fair treatment act.

Summary: Written in conjunction with the King of the State of Michigan, and ratified by the Kings and Governors of the 51 States of the Union. Signed into Law by Imperator Vampirica and President of the United States on November the 12th, 2030. This and the law that it amends will be forever known as the Shaper Justice Act. It is to address many problems presented in this day, the inability for JTLR and other Government agencies to police the many factions of Shaper's also called Shape-shifters within the United States. It further more sets guidelines and rules pertaining to but not limited to marriage, land ownership, and voting rights.

Previous Law states: See Article #13896506543

Body: On this day, it is henceforth ordered that: Shapers will be given the rights to make laws for, to protect and police their own lands, so long as they are privately owned. Shapers who live on state owned lands must abide by the mandates of Article #13896506543, of July 2023. Packs who have obtained and acquired their own legal rights to their lands no longer need the list protection of their state's government to prevent hunting of their kind, but this is limited to the borders of their lands, and may only aid in protecting the lands of others through invitation of the respective Packs and only Packs who own their own lands may invite aid to protect it. Protection of State owned lands and Shapers licensed to live there on, will fall solely under the jurisdiction of JTLR. Furthermore, any member of the races of Human and Vampire who may violate the laws of Pack lands must be turned over to JTLR for punishment. This is to prevent summary execution of other racial members who cannot have, and have not have been informed of the law of the land, in this case ignorance must be a defense. JTLR will then investigate the offender, if they are sure there is no proof of knowledge of the broken laws, then at most, a warning will be issued. Shape-shifter on Shape-shifter violence within Pack owned lands will be the sole jurisdiction of the Pack who owns the land. A Pack may only obtain land ownership rights when A) bought the land outright, and paid a fair amount for the lands current market value, B) was donated to the Pack, as a gift, in which the gift giver has signed over all rights to the Pack, and the Pack is capable of paying all required taxes, c) Inheritance, and meets all requirements of the inheritance laws. By no other action may a Pack or Shape-shifter be listed as landowners. In the address of Shaper marriage, Shape-shifters may marry with exception of: Shape-Shifters may not marry non infected humans, as there is too much of a risk of the virus spreading through bite or sexual contact. Scientists have proven that the Shaper virus is a communicable disease, and based on the blood test laws of the United States, no infected person may marry a non-infected person.

(Notation added January 2031: The validity of the tests mentioned herein, has been brought under dispute, at this time it has been decided that it will be listed as evidence, until further tests can be run to disprove the above conclusion. At the current time, this is proving difficult to find Shapers willing to be test subjects to disprove claims of infection through sexual intercourse.)

Furthermore, no Shape-shifter may marry or be listed as next of kin for those of Vampire kind, they may only enter into a blood bonding at this time. Blood bonding gives no legal rights to inheritance, this was decided by Imperator Vampirica.

Further Notation: A challenge was brought against this law and is awaiting Supreme Court ruling on the classification of the Shaper strain as a Virus, or Viral infection, the basis being the contention that the Shaper strain does not meet the requirements of a disease.

These changes are hereby to take effect immediately, and with post haste, from this day forth. JTLR will not be responsible for any action with privately owned Shaper lands listed within their mandate, unless a specific request for aid is made through the King or Governor of the Respective state, at which time the State government or the Shaper Pack leadership will be responsible for all costs incurred by the investigations.

Anything not covered with this amendment, yet still covered within law #13896506543, are to be considered valid as written, and will not change under this amended notation.

Signed and Ratified into law by the 130th congress of the United States, and the council of the Ageless, approved and instituted by both President of the United States and Imperator Vampirica.

* * *

The clerk closed the law book in front of him and shook his head as he turned to look at the secretary at her desk, in the cubical just outside his office door. “Shelly, could you make sure that copies are sent each King and Governor please.” Just as she seemed to want to answer him, the phone rang and she was forced to pick it up.

“Yes sir, right away sir.” He watched her through the door, as she pushed the button on the phone in front of her. Before she turned around to speak at him, as she never spoke to him seeing as how she was only a secretary and nothing more. “Sir, the Office of the Council of the Ageless in Michigan, one of the councilors wishes to speak with you.”

“Did they say who?” he asked with a great amount of impatience in his tone. The truth is, he knew they probably hadn't. He hated dealing with Vampires. As had his predecessor and the one before him, and the one before him, all the way back to the end of the Vampiric war, that had begun just after World War Two, and Vampires had come fully into the open in the United States of America in the early 1990's. Now, he did get along with a few, but a politician was a politician, rather he chooses to eat steak or drink blood and there was a reason why jokes such as 'why do you bury a politician 100 feet down... because deep down they are good people.' still made some laugh. In fact, at times he was forced to agree, although he would never say things like 'Vampires and Humans proving daily that politics has not changed in a 1000 years.' out loud. He was angry, at times, in his job. Sometimes he hated it with a passion, but never enough to risk his life in the process. So, when he picked up the phone, he put a pretend smile into his voice as he spoke. “Hello Councilman.” then he froze for a second as he heard the name, he never got many calls from the council members of Michigan.

“Yes sire, I just checked the notations today, it went into official act this morning.” He paused to clear his throat, he would have reached for the water on his desk, but he was sure that would be rude. “Wait, I am sorry sire, you need to check what? Yes sire, one second.” He stopped and opened the book in front of him once again and ran his finger down the pages to the marked one he had just been putting the Supreme Court note in. When it was once again open, he began reading the different sections of the main law that was the Shaper Justice Act. “Ah yes, here it is, sire. In section A, 2-1 any Pack that cannot police its own lands, and has a great spike in crime rates, or shows an inability to protect its people may have their rights of self policing and protection stripped by the council and senate of their state.” He again paused as he listened. “That is not my place to say sire, but no I see no time limit on how long they must prove it.” He finally could not resist any longer and grabbed the glass to take a drink from it. “You're welcome Sire. My secretary is sending copies to all the offices today. You should have it in the morning. Thank you sire.” When he hung up the phone, he made sure to make note in his log of when this call had come in, but he was not stupid enough to list a name with it. Vampires did not like having their names on things that could come back to them, and you never quite knew exactly what could come back to them. However, he had to guess that a Vampire calling about a law going into effect today and the specific information he wanted, as to what the law said about taking away the rights of Shapers who prove they cannot police their own lands. He could guess that some Pack of beasts, somewhere, was going to be hating their lives and relatively soon.