Justices Find Own Appointment Unconstitutional

[aggienaut]

   So I went to Senate today, since two new Justice appointees were up for confirmation.
   Only problem is, of the people the Constitution lists must be on the interviewing committee to forward judicial nominees to Senate, the Elections Committee chairman had not been present. In fact, Chairman Leathers hadn't even been told about the interviews. It is unclear if this is because he is regarded as a troublesome dissident by the administration or just an oversight.
   So I decided to give the justices a little test of character. I had Senator Sanders ask them during the hearing what their interpretation of the implications of the improperly constituted interview committee was, and I gave them five minutes to think about it by advising them that it might come up as a problem (and giving them absolutely no guidance other than that).
   They're answers?
   "Its pretty clear that they need to be there"
   "Unconstitutional, its quite clear."

   And then, after the two judicial nominees both declared their own confirmation unconstitutional, the Senate confirmed them. (!!)

   But man, I was so proud. I don't think very many people would declare their own confirmation unconstitutional like that. And this is exactly the kind of people I want on the Court.
   As to the Senate though, while this emphasizes how extremely qualified the candidates are, I personally wouldn't have confirmed them. They were incorrectly nominated, moving on without addressing this just facilitates the exclusion of officials of differing politics such as Leathers, and the legal situation gets a lot messier and hard to undo once they are confirmed.


   Also under discussion while I was there was the cutting of some $3,000 from Cal Aggie Camp (a philanthropic summer camp for underpriviledged children, a third of their budget), to give to Aggie Pack (the promotional arm of the university athletics division, totally less than a tenth of their budget). Former comptroller Devin Whitney made a reappearance to lambast them for this. Current comptroller Kai Savaree-Ruess defended his budget though, saying that the Aggie Pack reaches one third of Davis students, and was therefore important. Incidently, I thought I'd point out that this argument is hinges upon a fallacious implication: that the Aggie Pack servicing of 33% of campus hinges upon this $3,000. Aggie Pack may reach 33% of the campus now, but without this money they will reach 32.87% of campus, while the servicing of underpriviledged children will go down by a third. I just thought I'd point that out.

Comments

[oeaschwab.livejournal.com]

Aww taking from the rich (Aggie pack) and giving to the poor (Cal Aggie Camp)... how about we take Tiny Tim's crutch and give it to IM Sports for field hockey?

[oeaschwab.livejournal.com]

Wow thats how angry I was last night, fucked up my own rant! I meant to say stealing from the poor and giving to the rich.

[anonymous-frosh.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Foobar went on to look at this Lj after you commented, because he added a comment to his page (Foobar2, which was just deleted and him banned) which ended with
"What do they say.. ‘the truth shall set you free’."

I laughed out loud when I read your post. Sounds like a step in a nice direction. Have to have integrity somewhere.

Who were the appointees?

-The Anonymous Freshman

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

A appointees were the venerable John Wheat & Kevin Powers

[crazydiamond42.livejournal.com]

Oh, that threatening rabble rouser Jonothan Leathers!

[dubloon.livejournal.com]

god bless these new court appointees

-Tim

[ashael.livejournal.com]

As some smart guy once said, "I would never join a club that would accept me as a member".

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

I believe that was Groucho Marx.

[jtleathers.livejournal.com]

It really makes no sense that I wasn't contacted. I've missed classes to sit in on these interviews in the past, even though the President is the only person on the interviewing committee who has the authority to decide who gets sent to the Senate for confirmation.

My guess is that someone in the Exec office screwed up and didn't tell me or the Student Government Advisor figured I didn't need to be there. Irregardless, the Senate shows it's stupidity once again with these confirmations.

So the question remains: Who is going to file the Court case?

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

I hope thats not really want the interviewing committee believes: that its ultimately only the president's decision -- because its not. I suppose when we wrote that article we largely just assumed it would be obvious that the interviewing committee would all be involved, so we only made passing references to the subject; for example why is the advisor a "non-voting" member of that committee if they don't vote?

Also, it appears they had all the other positions filled and just replaced you with a senator. I don't know, it seems kind of pointed to me.

[orwell-troll.livejournal.com]

Actually Jon, you do have a vote on the hiring committee. The constitution very much leads one to believe this is the case. So honestly, you would probably be the one to file the court case for both of these instances.

Also, I still disagree with the assessment of the two newly confirmed Justices. I believe that only quorum is necessary to establish a proper hiring committee, like every other meeting in ASUCD. However, I'm probably in the minority on that one.

quorum

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

Well then you can work with defence if there's a case. (=

[jtleathers.livejournal.com]

I only have really old versions of every Government document, except the Election Regulations, so I don't even have the version that says the Elections Committee Chairperson is to sit in on these interviews. I'll go by SGAO on Monday and get the most up-to-date versions of everything in order to properly file a complaint.

[jtleathers.livejournal.com]

OMFGWTF! There are actually updated versions on the website!

[orwell-troll.livejournal.com]

Yeah Jon,
Alex made me an admin of the ASUCD website, so I'm making sure everything gets done. See the Court page, for example.

Actually, I think the updated bylaws being online is primarily due to SGAO this time. But I'll make sure they get updated.

[revchad.livejournal.com]

I would suggest that 100% of UCD students are served by Cal Aggie Camp. They are served by being a part of a virtuous act, and virtue is its own reward.