Friday, October 12, 2007
Weering!
Oh, it gets funnier and funnier. The AGSC could not find another nominee after Ross Lingenfelder got rejected. The Senate then decided to nominate Taylor Allbright for the position of Solicitor General. It looks like Alex Kozak is going to be all alone again.
Some senators registered fears that Lingenfelder would be biased because of his position as president of the Berkeley College Republicans.
"My only consideration is the role Mr. Lingenfelder has in BCR. It seems like a pseudo-conflict of interest, especially around election time," said Independent Senator Nadir Shams.
Lingenfelder was not present at the reconsideration but said he had previously given senators the opportunity to ask him questions about his involvement with BCR and had not received any. The Senate does not look all that good with this. I showed up expecting to watch that discussion, and didn't realize that folks would be too cowardly to actually say what they believe until they had to.
SQUELCH! Senator Gabe Weiner first suggested that the senate appoint a "random person" who would hold the place of solicitor general and resign when a suitable replacement was found, but other senators objected on the grounds that the person could grow to enjoy the position. Oh, God, not Daily Cal reporting! That isn't itself really grounds for an objection, is it?
This seems to really miss the point of having an enforced deadline like this. There is a procedure for "placeholder" Solicitors General, and the EVP appoints them (and should have this week). That means that the By-Laws really want a legitimate Solicitor General in place by this time or business stops.
The senate considered nominating either a senator or an executive to hold the place of solicitor general and nominated Executive Vice President Taylor Allbright to the position. I think this is kind of missing the point of a Solicitor General.
"My primary concern was that I didn't want work to stop (in the senate)," said Student Action Senator Corey Jackson, who chairs the committee. Corey Jackson is putting forward this concern? The AGSC hadn't even received any applications before their first deadline because they waited so long to put them out. It didn't bother to interview candidates, or even tell them they were nominated, and still only nominated someone at the last possible second. All of a sudden, the chair is concerned about delays?
Senators also discussed the possibility of amending the bylaws in the future to eliminate the position of solicitor general, who serves under the attorney general. Strictly speaking, this isn't quite correct. The Solicitor General assists the Attorney General with his duties, but that doesn't mean he has to listen to the AG or anything.
As far as where to go from here, Ross has a pretty legitimate case that his nomination was undone illegally. If he sued in the Judicial Council, and got injunction preventing the unappointment, he could even represent both sides of the case.
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