ASUO Constitution Court was tasked with deciding many tough controversial decisions this year — including whether or not to remove former ASUO President Ben Eckstein – but Chief Justice Nick Schultz said the Court is excited for the upcoming year.@@nameschecked@@
One of the biggest issues for the Court was the definition of non-fulfillment of duties. In one case, they decided to remove ASUO Sen. Lamar Wise@@checked@@ from his position as senate president, citing non-fulfillment, which isn’t clearly defined in the Green Tape Notebook.
“We try as little as possible to redefine language,” Schultz said. “There were times when there is no guidance but we still have to make a decision. A lot of the decisions involved the Court finding out what direction we want to go as a body.”
Part of that is becoming more accessible to ASUO members, and Wise said the Court did a good job of that this year. He said that during the grievance process, they were easy to contact.
“I always knew what was expected of me,” Wise said. “Chief Justice Schultz always made things very clear.”
The Court also held an unprecedented public hearing this term to determine whether or not to remove former ASUO President Ben Eckstein from office. Schultz said the reason they decided to discuss the issue in a public setting was so student electors could be more informed.
“It is important to have a public argument to inform students about big issues,” Schultz said. “It is important for people to see how we use language and try to change it if they want.”
In order to make the Court more accessible, Schultz is working on creating a database where people can search for past decisions by year, keywords or the name of the justice who authored it. He thinks this will help justices make decisions because precedents will be easier to see. It may also help senators be more informed while writing grievances, and it will allow students to track case history.
“You will be able to see how the Court has evolved,” Schultz said.
Another issue the Court has had is the dense nature of the GTN. ASUO President Laura Hinman@@checked@@ intends to work with the language to make the documents more accessible.
“The GTN has very unclear and difficult language,” Hinman said. “Con Court is given a document that isn’t a working document. We’re going to work with them to make the language more clear.”
The Executive will also work to clarify the Court’s relationship with the Elections Board.
“Most of the problems for Con Court come in during elections,” Hinman said. “We are going to work on the relationship between the two bodies.”