Supreme Court Holds Meeting; Discusses New Bylaws

Managing Editor

Courtesy of Zack Tucker

   The Supreme Court discussed the new proposed bylaws of the Supreme Court of the University of Arkansas-Monticello Student Government Association and received nominations for chief justice Dec. 1.

   According to Article I: Membership, the members of the Supreme Court consist of nine members: two students and one faculty member appointed from each of the other branches of SGA including cabinet, Senate and Student Activities Board. Each member will be appointed for one-year terms.

   Article II: Meeting and Attendance, Section 1 describes how general meetings and special meetings shall be two categories of meetings. The General Meetings of the SGA Supreme Court discusses and conducts normal business. Special meetings will be called at different times to discuss a specific matter. All meetings shall be made at the call of the chief justice.

   The Supreme Court conducts three types of meetings: business meetings, government review hearings and court hearings.

   Business meetings shall be called to discuss and conduct official business matters of the Supreme Court including elections and procedure/policy changes. Government review hearings will be meetings where the Supreme Court reviews each of the other branches of the SGA. Court hearings shall be special meetings called to hear and review a complaint against an SGA official.

   The Supreme Court will hold government review hearings of one of the three branches every Tuesday of the month.

   Buford said she asked Zack Tucker to write the proposed bylaw, because of his work in writing the new constitution.

   Zack Tucker described the duties of a Supreme Court.

   “Basically, the Supreme Court has two duties. One to review the three other branches and then two to actually hear claims against other government officials,” Tucker said. “Those are the two things (the Supreme Court Justices) will be doing as a justice. Now, all nine of you y’all will actually be meeting for every single one of these court cases. A court hearing is only heard by three members of the justices; two students and one faculty member.”

   Tucker said each branch of the government would be heard three times. A justice will only have scheduled meetings three times a year.

   The groups for the government review hearing include:

• Group 1: Jessica Goodman, Hunter Gillum and Albert Snow, assistant professor of Education
• Group 2: Errin James, Angelia Buford and Crystal Ratliff, director of Student Advising
• Group 3: Tiffany Reed, Anthony Boykin and Carol Strong, interim dean and assistant professor of Political Sciences

 
   Two weeks before a hearing, a justice will receive a packet from the branch about things happening in that branch of the government. The official hearing will take place two weeks after receiving the packet. If no problems occur, justices can a make a motion to no action or make a motion for further investigation.

   For claims against student government official in Court Hearings, all justices will receive a packet with statements from the person making the claim and any witnesses. Justices can sign off to hear the case or say the case should not be heard. Justices do not have to take the case. The cases have to be heard by two students and one faculty member and any other justices can be from the branch of government.

   The only judgment the Supreme Court can hand out is suspending a student from student government or expelling them, barring that student from ever holding an office in student government.

   Snow asked about situations, which would cause a student government official to be suspended or expelled.

   Tucker said the whole point of reforming student government happened because at one time student government officials were not following procedure. Buford brought up how she helped to change bylaws in the senate due to some disruptive senators, not allowing them to have senate meetings or being combative with other senators.

   Interim Chief Justice Angelia Buford announced she would have to resign from the Supreme Court because she could not be there on Tuesdays due to scheduling conflicts. The members of the court took nominations for chief justice and justices would vote electronically. The justices nominated Buford and Anthony Boykin; both accepted the nomination.

    According to Article III, the chief justice will hold his or her office for one term, be elected by the majority of the members of the court in the spring before the first day of May.

  
   The chief justice’s duties include:

• To file and organize hearings.
• To inform other branches of the SGA of judgments
• To insure the procedure of the Supreme Court in conducted in a fair and nondiscriminatory manner.

   Other bylaws included:

• Article IV: Demerits
• Article V: Government Review Hearings
• Article VI: Complaint Case Filing Procedures
• Article VII: Court Hearing Procedure
• Article VIII: Appeals
• Article IX: Ratification and Amendments

   
   The Supreme Court met last met Nov. 17.  From the old minutes, they amended Hunter Gillum’s name from those absent.

   According to the Nov. 17 minutes, Mindy Holcomb told the Supreme Court about using her to send out e-mails about the meetings and communicating with other members when meetings are scheduled. At that time, Holcomb suggested electing or temporarily electing a chief justice to carry out the day-to-day administrative tasks. This includes contacting her to get e-mails out, until a chief justice could be elected through constitutional means. Holcomb selected Buford by random selection of the members present by drawing names out of a hat.

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