Student Senate Confirms New Chief Justice

 

Almost three weeks after Student Body President Breyon Love appointed Chris Weaver as chief justice of the judicial branch, Weaver finally took the oath of office.

Weaver said Love approached him about possibly taking the position four months ago. According to Senate president Marissa West, part of

the statute requires Love to advertise the position for at least 10 business days before appointing Weaver, a graduate political science

student from Fort Lauderdale. Because he didn’t, it delayed Weaver’s appointment, West said.

Weaver said the statute is unnecessary and that he is looking to submit a proposal to remove it on document review day at the end of the year.

“The constitution states that the SGA president appoints whomever he wants,” Weaver said. “It’s purposeless to have an application process that’s 10 days when the president already knows who he’s going to appoint.”

Weaver said he understands the motive behind the statute, which is to keep the positions open for all interested applicants. However, the back and forth between the legislative and executive branches could have hindered student elections. “If we’d had a case this year with the elections, we probably wouldn’t have been able to try that case. We didn’t have a chief justice and we didn’t have a quorum,” Weaver said. “That 10-day thing jeopardizes the whole election process because (Love) has to jump through hoops just to appoint people he already knew he wanted to appoint.”

West said the decision was necessary to make sure all interested applicants were given the opportunity to apply. 

“To my understanding, the student body president was just trying to get the position filled as elections were approaching,” West said. “Even with that situation, we had to abide by that advertising period, and he still made the same decision. It is within the rights and powers of the student body president to choose as he sees fit.”

Love, however, disagreed, and said advertising the position is not part of the statute unless he has missed the deadline to appoint new members. He said his duty is to appoint members, and, once they are, everything else lies in the hand of the Senate. 

Weaver agrees that the statutes are convoluted and need to be simplified. Changing the statute and removing the “loopholes” is a priority for him in the upcoming year.

“The legislative branch put (the statute) in there, so we’ll let it ride for now,” he said.