I'm important!This is an e-mail from Jessica Unterhalter, currently undergoing impeachy stuff because the senate is afraid of big strong graduate students, I guess. It was sent to all the important people on campus, and me as well, for some reason. It explains her position and tries to clear stuff up, I guess.To Whom It may concern, I would like to clear up any misunderstandings or confusion that may have resulted from my issuing the Emergency Preliminary Injunction that prevented President Leybovich’s Executive Order #6 from taking effect prior to the opening of the polls. At approximately 11:10 p.m. Chair Gregg, Senior Associate Nikhil Cooper, and myself received a charge sheet with a request for an Emergency Preliminary Injunction from Mike Davis, asserting the question on the ballot that corresponded to the Graduate Assembly Autonomy Referendum violated 4.10.3 of the ASUC Bylaws. This provision ensures questions presented to the students be both an “impartial and accurate” portrayal of the referenda’s intent. Approximately ten minutes later, we three received charges asserting the same arguments for the Student Voice Referenda. The Chair immediately called the council members into a meeting to discuss accepting the case and issuing the Preliminary Injunction. The meeting occurred online in real time, via an AOL instant messenger chat room, and was attended by the Chair, myself, Senior Associate Nikhil Cooper, and Associates Aidan Ali-Sullivan, Marisa Cuveas, Amaris White, and Sonya Banerjee. Judicial Rules of Procedure 3.6.2.2 stipulate four criterions a case must meet to be accepted. First, the case must be in the Council’s jurisdiction. Secondly, the allegation must constitute a violation of the Association’s rules. Thirdly, the Council must be able to remedy the situation, and lastly, the case must be filled in good faith. After extensive discussion the Council unanimously agreed that these cases merited being accepted. Furthermore, the Council unanimously decided to issue the Preliminary Injunction. The reasoning, as stated in the text of the injunction written by the Chair, is as follows: “…if the ballots do include impartial referendum descriptions, student opinion of the initiatives may be permanently tainted. However, if we prevent the referendums from appearing on the ballot, irreparable harm will be done to the Elections Council, who will have to hold a second voting round of some form, which might result in lower voter turnout and additional expenditures. Upon weighing both points, this Council believes the student voter’s untainted opinion and the credibility of an ASUC election to be more important.” After over two hours of deliberations, the Council released its injunction at approximately 1:25a.m., and alerted all necessary parties to enforce the injunction. Unbeknownst to me, at 5:45 a.m. on April 5th, President Leybovich sent an email asking for feedback on a draft Executive Order that would postpone the election by one day. The email was sent to the Judicial Council’s listserv, Attorney General Nathan Royer, Mike Davis, the ASUC Secretariat, all ASUC Officers, Jan Crowder, Election Council Assistant Chair Gunjan Goel, Election Council Chair Angel Brewer, Graduate Assembly President Rishi Sharma, Rebecca Brown, Varoon Madak, and Tom Cordi. Even though this email was sent to the Judicial Council listserv, I did not receive it because the list is locked so only Judicial Council members may use it. Any email sent by an outside source is automatically blocked, and bounced to the Chair. At 8:46a.m., Mike Davis replied to all the above recipients, asserting that he would sue if any such Executive Order was issued and request an Emergency Preliminary Injunction to prevent it from taking effect, as he believed President Leybovich’s action was neither “urgent or necessary,” to the functioning of the Association, and thus a violation of the Constitution. At 8:50 a.m. President Leybovich sent an Executive Order to the recipients of his previous email, ordering the Election Council to place both referenda back on the ballot. At 8:59 a.m. Mike Davis followed through with his threat, emailing a charge sheet as described above to President Leybovich’s recipient list, with the addition of myself, Chair Gregg and Andy Ratto. Shortly thereafter, I received a phone call from Mike Davis telling me he had filed another charge with a request for another Emergency Preliminary Injunction. He stated that Chair Gregg was unavailable due to a midterm later that day, and as voting was set to start imminently with referenda back on the ballot contrary to the Council early decision, it was necessary for me to review his charge sheet and decide whether or not an Emergency Preliminary Injunction should be granted. Even though any member of the council may issue an Emergency Preliminary Injunction, it is customary to allow members to make decisions in order of hierarchy, and as Assistant Chair, I was next in line in to do so seeing that Chair Gregg was unavailable. Recognizing the time sensitive nature of the case at hand, I attempted to contact the Chair personally, who was indeed unavailable for consultation; I then proceeded to make the decision on my own. Emergency Preliminary Injunctions are established in 3.8.1 of the Judicial Rules of Procedure and state the following: “Any Justice may order an Emergency Preliminary Injunction if there is adequate reason to believe irreparable harm will be done before the Council can meet.” The Council had already determined that irreparable harm would occur if the questions appeared on the ballot prior to the hearing. This irreparable harm was what President Leybovich was ordering to take place. Taking into consideration the unanimous decision of my fellow council members, I decided there was “adequate reason to believe” that an Emergency Preliminary Injunction was necessary and thus I subsequently issued it. I regret that my actions were not fully explained to or understood by those whom they effected, but they were taken with every due diligence and respect for the law, both constitutionally and procedurally. I invite any questions to clarify or further explain the matter at hand to be sent to jeunter@berkeley.edu. posted by Beetle Aurora Drake 4/11/2005 01:14:00 PM # Comments (0) . . .
