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Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009 2:54 p.m.

Student Association to investigate conflict of interest of Student Court judge

by Madeleine Morgenstern

A Student Association investigation has been launched to determine how much members of the executive and senate leadership knew about an alleged violation of the SA Constitution by the Student Court’s chief judge, according to a formal investigation request obtained by The Hatchet.

Executive branch Chief of Staff Dan Curran said in an e-mail to The Hatchet on Tuesday that Student Court Chief Judge Jen Goldstein resigned from her Program Board position “out of an abundance of caution.” Goldstein had been the political affairs chair for PB, and the SA constitution outlaws serving on the court and on the executive board of any other student organization.

“The matter was handled quickly and amicably, and Jen Goldstein remains the Chief Judge of the SA Student Court,” said Curran, a senior.

Senior Jordan Chapman, the SA vice president for judicial and legislative affairs, announced the appointment of junior James Bonneau as a special investigator in the case, in an e-mail sent to SA President Julie Bindelglass and Curran Monday night.

Chapman emphasized that the investigation was not about Goldstein’s conflict of interest.

“It’s apparent that the rules were broken, whether on purpose or inadvertently,” Chapman said. “The request alleges that the leadership basically swept this under the rug, we’re trying to see if this is true.”

Bonneau was a special investigator for the Joint Elections Committee and represented them in last year’s case “Boyer vs. JEC.”

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Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2009 2:50 p.m.

Suspended SA senator files lawsuit to postpone allocations meeting

by Madeleine Morgenstern

On the eve of the initial allocations meeting, Student Association Sen. Anthony Marenna, CCAS-U,  filed a lawsuit in Student Court challenging his senate suspension and demanding that Tuesday night’s allocations meeting be put on hold until the Court could hear his case.

Executive Vice President Jason Lifton and Sen. Erik Ashida, the named defendants, announced Tuesday that they will plead no contest to Marenna’s complaint, and allow Marenna to participate in the allocations meeting in order to ensure that student organizations receive their operating budgets as scheduled.

Marenna –  who was suspended Friday along with Sen. Brandon Feldman, SoB-U, after they missed three consecutive Academic Affairs Committee meetings – alleges that Ashida, CCAS-U, held an unconstitutional committee-elect meeting on April 21, 2009. The complaint also alleges that Ashida failed to give proper three-day notification of another missed meeting.

The complaint included a request for an emergency injunction from the court to prevent Tuesday’s allocations meeting from taking place.

Lifton said he believes that Marenna should remain suspended, but said that one student’s behavior should not keep the entire student body from receiving funding from the SA.

“Delaying allocations is not an option in my mind, so in the interest of every member of the student body, I will not let him hold up allocating money,” Lifton said.

Ashida echoed Lifton’s sentiments, and said he stands by his original decision to suspend Marenna.

“Participation is essential in an advocacy committee like Academic Affairs. In his complaint, he’s not protesting the fact that he was not present at those meetings. He is alleging that I called those meetings improperly,” Ashida said.

Marenna said that he would accept a no contest plea.

“I welcome this opportunity for the senate to move on and to put our full focus on the allocations meeting, which is exactly what the student body deserves,” Marenna said.

The SA allocations meeting is scheduled for tonight at 9 p.m. in the Elliott School’s “State Room” in 1957 E Street.

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Thursday, April 30, 2009 5:28 p.m.

Boyer v. JEC court decision released

by Emily Cahn

The Student Court released the reasoning behind their decision earlier this year in Boyer v. Joint Elections Committee, the decision that kept Kyle Boyer off of the Student Association runoff ballot.

Boyer was removed from the SA presidential runoff ballot in March after he failed to report the fair market value for the use of a friend’s car on an election expenditure report.

Boyer brought up a case against the JEC – the SA elections oversight body – claiming they made an arbitrary and capricious decision as to the value of the jeep,  a decision which effectively removed Boyer from the runoff ballot.

The Court ruled in favor of the JEC’s decision to keep Boyer off of the ballot, claiming they did not want to take away from the JEC’s power.

Below is the Court’s reasoning behind their decision:

In a 2-1 decision, this court finds in favor of the defendant.

In finding for the defendant, this court affirms the standards of review elucidated in Ferguson v. JEC. We continue to give the JEC broad discretion and will only disturb a sanction imposed by the JEC upon a showing of abuse of discretion by the JEC.

Here, the JEC was charged with determining the fair market value of the use of a candidate’s friend’s vehicle on H Street. Even if we feel that we would have come to a different conclusion as to the value, we acknowledge the difficulty of this task and the superior position of the JEC to accomplish it. We decline to substitute our judgment for the judgment of the JEC when, as here, we could find no abuse of discretion.

Therefore, this Court orders:

that JEC Order S09-056 be affirmed,

that JEC Order S09-057 be affirmed, and

that the order of disqualification against Mr. Boyer be affirmed.

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Wednesday, April 1, 2009 7:26 p.m.

SA senator files the year’s third Student Court complaint

by Emily Cahn

Student Association Sen. Logan Dobson (CCAS-U) filed a complaint with the Student Court Wednesday, alleging that a bill regarding SA finances is unconstitutional and should be declared null and void.

SA President Vishal Aswani signed the bill in question into law Tuesday night.

Dobson, a sophomore claims the piece of legislation — which guarantees that a student organization representing a college within GW is guaranteed a minimum of $2,000 in the SA’s initial allocations period and allows them to make any decision with that money that they please — goes against the SA’s constitution.

“The constitution tells the SA that they have to keep tabs on the money that the SA gives out and this bill takes money where it can’t be seen, infringing on that responsibility,” Dobson said. “It authorizes student orgs to take their SA money and put it into private accounts.”

During his tenure as an SA senator, Dobson has made financial transparency one of his main priorities.

Last semester, Dobson successfully sponsored a bill which opened up SA financial records to any student wishing to see them. This bill, Dobson said, goes against the nature of his financial transparency bill passed last fall.

“I’m of the opinion that financial allocations are, in the end, the only really important thing that the Senate does,” Dobson said. “So transparency must be of the utmost importance.”

If the Court agrees to hear Dobson’s case, it will be the third case in one year.

A copy of Dobson’s complaint can be found here.

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Sunday, March 22, 2009 11:18 p.m.

Boyer to have Student Court hearing Monday night

by Emily Cahn

Student Association presidential candidate Kyle Boyer will present his argument to the Student Court Monday night at 9:30 p.m. in the Marvin Center room 401.

Boyer will argue that the Joint Elections Committee — the committee that voted to remove him from the runoff ballot — made an “arbitrary and capricious” determination for the fair market value of a car he parked on H Street during the general election.

The JEC will argue that they made a calculated decision and conducted a fair trial.

Last year’s chief judge and JEC investigator each filed briefs supporting Boyer; last year’s JEC chair and vice chair filed a brief supporting the JEC.

All court documents are available from the court’s Web site. Stay with The Hatchet for the final verdict.

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Wednesday, March 18, 2009 6:50 a.m.

Student Court agrees to hear Boyer’s appeal

by The GW Hatchet

This post was written by Emily Cahn and Andrew Nacin.

The Student Court agreed to hear Student Association presidential candidate Kyle Boyer’s challenge of his disqualification by the Joint Elections Committee from the runoff election, according to documents posted on its Web site early Wednesday. The hearing will be held Tuesday, March 24.

Tuesday night, Jake Chervinsky, vice chair of the JEC, which oversees SA elections, filed a motion to dismiss Boyer’s complaint. He wrote:

For the plaintiff to be successful in his complaint, he must be able to demonstrate some failure of the Committee to exercise a sound, reasonable and legal process, or some evidence that the Committee’s decision was not founded in fact or law. However, in the course of his “Statement of Facts,” the plaintiff has failed to list a single fact, alleged or admitted, sufficient to establish this burden.

The court did not rule on Chervinsky’s motion when it agreed to hear the case.

The court has accepted an amicus brief supporting Boyer from Ryan Sullivan, a former chief judge of the court. A GW graduate who had also served as vice chair of the JEC, Sullivan wrote that the JEC’s decision was “determined by chance or impulse rather than by necessity or reason.”

Last week, the Joint Elections Committee determined that Boyer failed to report the use of a friend’s car parked on H Street, which he borrowed to display posters, play music and dance on during the general election last month. SA presidential candidates are required to report the fair market value of all items used for their campaign.

The estimated expenditures for the use of the car – which the JEC determined using rental car pricing – pushed Boyer over the $1,000 spending limit by $92.63, adding additional violation points and disqualifying him from the runoff election.

Sullivan argued in his brief that the JEC’s assessment of the fair market value of the car was “not rational or sound under any interpretation.” The JEC, he wrote, “seemingly just picked a random number that was large enough to make Mr. Boyer go over the expenditure limit and kick him off the ballot without any reasoning or rationale for doing so.”

Sullivan also argued that the current JEC Charter allows for the court to undertake an expanded review of the JEC’s findings, well beyond the limited precedent The Hatchet reported Monday. The JEC’s answer to Boyer’s complaint, also filed with the court, reiterated the limited precedent the court has applied to itself over the years.

The hearing is scheduled for the eve of the runoff election, set for March 25 and 26, between sophomores Julie Bindelglass and Nick Polk. The court is likely to render its decision quickly and without postponing the runoff (which has already been postponed once), as the SA’s constitution requires that the election is held within 10 class days of the general election — which is March 25 and 26.

Edit: 7:10 p.m. Sunday, March 21

Boyer’s case will be heard Monday night at 9:30 p.m. in the Marvin Center room 401.

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Monday, March 16, 2009 10:22 a.m.

Boyer appeals disqualification to Student Court

by Emily Cahn

Student Association Executive Vice President Kyle Boyer filed a complaint with the Student Court Monday, challenging his disqualification by the Joint Elections Committee from the runoff election for SA president.

Boyer claimed the JEC — the oversight body for SA elections — made an “arbitrary and capricious decision” to remove him from the runoff ballot.

During the general election, Boyer placed posters on a friend’s car and parked it on H Street in front of Kogan Plaza. Though Boyer did not have to pay for the use of his friend’s car, according to the JEC’s decision last Wednesday, Boyer was required to report the car’s fair market value in his expenditure report.

Because Boyer did not report the fair market value of the car — which the JEC determined to be the cost of renting a car for two days, or the entire duration of the general election — the JEC awarded violation points. After adding the cost for the use of the car onto his expenditure report — which cannot exceed $1,000 — Boyer’s total expenditure report totaled $1,090, pushing him over the limit and thus disqualifying him from the runoff election.

In the complaint, Boyer argued that the JEC’s determination of the fair market value of the car was “arbitrary and capricous” and resulted in “the accumulation of an excess of penalties, and the subsequent issuance of the Disqualification Order.”

In 1992, the Student Court heard a case where presidential candidate Christopher Ferguson alleged that the JEC made an “arbitrary and capricious” decision to hand out ballots only to first-year students in the law and medical schools, but not to any other students.

Though Ferguson lost his case, the court has at times used Ferguson v. JEC as precedent that it would review decisions of the JEC only if they are in fact arbitrary and capricious. In 2007, the court cited the precedent in Cohen v. JEC. The court found that the JEC made an arbitrary and capricious decision to disqualify a senator-elect, Matt Cohen. The court overturned the disqualification, which was concerning the sharing an expenditure among multiple candidates. The cited precedent:

To reiterate Ferguson v. Joint Election Committee, the Student Court is not a “higher JEC” and it should only overturn decisions using the arbitrary and capricious standard.

The Ferguson and Cohen decisions can be found on the court’s Web site. Boyer’s complaint is attached here as a PDF. The court has yet to decide whether to hear the case.

Our most recent coverage on Boyer’s removal from the runoff is here.  The runoff is scheduled for March 25 and 26.

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Friday, March 13, 2009 6:10 p.m.

Boyer to file Student Court case

by Emily Cahn

After Student Association presidential candidate Kyle Boyer was disqualified from the runoff early Thursday, he told campaign supporters in an e-mail that he plans to file a case with the Student Court.

During Boyer’s hearing with the Joint Elections Committee — the oversight body for SA elections — he argued that he should not have had to list the use of a friend’s car on H Street as an expenditure. SA candidates are required to list their campaign expenditures and file the report with the JEC. A candidate’s expenditure report cannot exceed $1,000.

Because the JEC decided Boyer had to list the fair market value for the use of his friend’s car on H Street, Boyer’s expenditure report was pushed past the $1,000 limit, disqualifying him from the runoff election.

In an e-mail to campaign supporters, Boyer said he will contest the JEC’s decision with a Student Court complaint. The Court is not obligated to hear the case.

Boyer’s email is below:

Everyone,

Thank you all for your words of support, prayers, etc. I obviously am not happy about the decision. The accusations of being a cheat and a fraud are kind of offensive as well. BUT the words of support, the phone vibrating off its charger, the friends, the family, and the knowledge of being right still outweigh the bad. In my 9:35 this morning a row of students behind me (didn’t know I was there) and were talking about the Hatchet’s article. I listened to them figuring they represent the average student, and without knowing I was in the class I could hear them yell “they really screwed him” or “that is so not fair” and I happen to agree with both. Those of you who have seen my status over the last day know its Romans 8:28, which basically tells us that everything happens for a reason. Since last night, I’ve focused my deliberation on whether or not its worth it at this point: the SA needs fixing, will people even respect me as a leader, can I afford the time and effort?

To answer all of you, YES I am going to challenge the decision. Too many people have volunteered their time, changed their profile pics, etc. for me to not finish this race. As soon as we can, we will file with the Student Court, and hopefully begin the process of reversing the JEC and finishing this election.

So, go to Mexico, Aruba, Nola, or Pennsylvania like me, and enjoy your Spring Break. Rest, recoup and rejuvenate, be thankful for the things that really matter in life (not SA politics), and we’ll finish this up when we get back.

I love and appreciate all of you,
Kyle

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Friday, Feb. 13, 2009 8:24 a.m.

No signatures needed to run for positions within the SA

by Emily Cahn

Signatures are no longer needed in order to run for a position within the Student Association after the Student Court voted to sustain the SA Senate’s veto override from this Tuesday night’s meeting.

In a 2-2 decision, the Court ended a complicated legislative battle over whether or not Executive Vice President Kyle Boyer and Alex Fitzsimmons, the SA’s secretary, made the correct ruling on what a “two-thirds decision” meant. 

SA President Vishal Aswani’s Vice President for Judicial and Legislative Affairs, Jordan Chapman, claimed that two-thirds of the entire senate body must vote in order to overturn a veto. However the court sided with Boyer, asserting that two-thirds of senators present and voting at the meeting was enough to garner a veto override.

Because the Court’s decision came a day before the candidate registration period ended, the Court ruled to extend the registration period until noon on Feb. 17, giving candidates an extra three and a half days to get their name on the ballot.

Check out Tuesday’s edition of The Hatchet for the full story.

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Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2009 2:55 p.m.

Student Court to rule on veto override

by Emily Cahn

The Student Court issued a temporary injunction on the override of President Vishal Aswani’s veto Wednesday morning, after Aswani’s vice president for judicial and legislative affairs, Jordan Chapman, questioned the validity of the vote.

Students wishing to run for a position within the SA must collect signatures at this time.

Last Tuesday, SA Sen. Logan Dobson (CCAS-U) proposed eliminating signature requirements for all candidates wishing to run for a position within the SA. At that meeting, the Senate voted to pass the bill by a super-majority.

Aswani, however, vetoed this legislation, claiming that students wishing to run for the SA executive should have to collect signatures to prove they are serious about advocating and working for students.

At this Tuesday night’s Senate meeting, the body voted to overturn Aswani’s veto, once again eliminating signature requirements. However early Wednesday morning, Chapman filed a complaint with the student court claiming not enough senators voted in order to receive a two-thirds majority to override the veto.

At the meeting, 18 senators were eligible to vote. Of those 18, five abstained, bringing the total number of voting Senators to 13. Of those 13, nine voted to overturn Aswani’s veto, garnering a two-thirds majority. The decision to accept this two-thirds majority was made by Executive Vice President, Kyle Boyer, and Alex Fitzsimmons, the SA’s secretary.

Chapman claims that this ruling was unconstitutional. According to Chapman, two-thirds of the entire Senate membership must vote to override a veto. This would mean that 18 Senators would be needed to obtain a two-thirds majority.

Christopher Wimbush, the chief judge of the Student Court, issued a 72-hour temporary injunction blocking any branch of the SA from enforcing the bill as an amendment to the JEC Charter.  The court will hear the case Thursday at 10 p.m. and make a decision shortly after determining whether or not the override stands.

If the override stands, students wishing to run for office will not have to collect signatures in order to be placed on the ballot. If it is ruled unconstitutional, students will have to collect signatures from 1 percent of the student body.

The Student Court has the power to extend registration period if the latter decision is made.

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