Judicial Branch

Appealing parking tickets, hearing election cases and interpreting the student government constitution are all part of a day’s work for the judicial branch of the student government.

The judicial branch is divided into two parts, traffic court and the student supreme court.

Justice Rick Hamilton, said the court mostly hears parking ticket appeals and has the power to hear towing violations.

“Some years we have heard as low as 1,000 cases and as high as 3,000 cases,” said the senior accounting student from Charlotte, NC.

The main purpose of the court is to interpret the student government constitution and function as a means of checks and balances for the executive and legislative branches.

“The main time for supreme court cases is during elections,” said Solicitor General Veronica Gray, a senior economics student from New Paltz, N.Y.

“The court meets on an as needed basis to handle inter-branch conflicts.”

The bulk of the court’s cases are election cases, but “the court is able to hear any case between students, student groups and organizations and anything that deals with the campus,” said Chief Justice Jamila Abston.

The senior accounting student from Mobile, Ala. said the court is working on getting housing cases to come to the supreme court. The court also has the power to impeach a SGA official. During the 1995-96 school year the Supreme Court heard impeachment proceedings brought against the SGA president.

Just like the U.S. Supreme Court, student justices are appointed once the current justice steps down. To be a justice, one must be a sophomore and have at least a 2.5 GPA.

Melissa Brown can be reached at mnbrown19@hotmail.com.