Nick Schultz is the newest justice of the ASUO Constitution Court, though he was appointed to the ASUO’s equivalent of a judiciary body over loud objections from some members of the ASUO Senate, from which he resigned to take the Constitution Court position Wednesday night.
“We both know I don’t trust you farther than I can throw you,” Sen. Hailey Sheldon told Schultz at his confirmation hearing.
Sheldon still voted for Schultz, a University senior, who was until Wednesday night the vice president of the Senate, but only on the condition that he promise never to talk to the press, the Senate or the ASUO president or her staff about his work.
In the ASUO, built to resemble the federal government in its structure, the Constitution Court is the equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court. It is charged mostly with interpreting the ASUO’s rules when grievances are filed.
The court has other jobs, and Schultz in particular indicated that he will try to mitigate the re-drawing of the Senate’s constituencies that the court created during winter term, which many in the ASUO decried.
Schultz, who will begin at the University’s School of Law in the fall, was appointed to the court after just short of two years on the Senate, where he has spent much of his second year at the heart of discord. More than anything, that has arisen from his relationship with Senate President Nick Gower, whom he called a “tyrant” during the winter.
“Throughout your time in the ASUO you’ve threatened to resign twice and you’ve resigned as (Programs Finance Committee) chair,” Gower told Schultz. “Is that going to happen again?”
Schultz assured him it would not. “There is no risk,” he said. “I understand that I am signing up for a three-year commitment.”
Gower still refused to vote for him, however.
“I don’t question your leadership ability or your dedication to the ASUO, but I’m not going to vote for you,” Gower said. “It’s personal.”
Gower was one of only two senators to vote against Schultz in the end, however. Though many senators said they voted for him in spite of reservations, many also heaped compliments on Schultz, who ran for ASUO president in 2009.
“I couldn’t imagine a more qualified person to be in front of this body right now,” Sen. Jeremy Blanchard said.
“You didn’t hold your position, your privilege, your knowledge over me,” Sen. Mercedes White Calf said of the relationship between her and Schultz when she was a new senator. “You gave a legacy for others to follow.”
[email protected]