Issue #2: Would the ASUC lose the case?

Oren Gabriel+ has insisted that, if the case wasn't dropped, the ASUC would have had to pay a settlement to their lawyers. Mark Himelstein is expected to say the same. The justification here seems to be that the Judicial Council's disqualification wouldn't hold up in court.

But this is critical: The Judicial Council's disqualification didn't even hold up in the Judicial Council. Whether or not the decision would hold up in court is irrelevant because it was never applied, since internal processes handled the issue. The real question is, after internal processes were sufficient to provide Gabriel+ their demands, would the ASUC still be liable?

Remember that in the DAAP case, because DAAP got all they wanted through the internal processes of the association, their case was dismissed by the judge. It seems likely that the same thing would occur here, and thus the ASUC would not be required to pay fees. The reason DAAP ended up getting money is because they amended and refiled to charge free speech violations for the two censures they received, and that case dragged on until the ASUC felt its autonomy threatened and decided to settle. But there is no evidence that a similar case could be made by Student Action, since the result of the appeal was that no punishment was assessed.

Thus, I don't believe that the ASUC was ever in danger of becoming responsible for Gabriel+'s fees. And anything Himelstein says is suspect as he has been working for the Student Action executives this whole time, and recused himself from defending the ASUC's Judicial Council.

posted by Beetle Aurora Drake 10/20/2006 12:14:00 PM #
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