Student Government Association senators passed an act restructuring and increasing the SGA’s oversight of the Student Court, mandating more frequent meetings and monthly reports to other branches at a meeting Monday.
Senators unanimously passed the Judicial Branch Bylaws Establishment Act, adding language to the SGA’s bylaws requiring the Student Court, the SGA’s judicial branch, to meet at least four times a semester and issue monthly reports to the legislative and executive branches and establishing two lower courts to hear cases before they reach the full Student Court. SGA Vice President Liz Stoddard said the senate passed the act — which marks the first time the SGA has exercised its authority to amend the Student Court’s bylaws after students voted to allow them to do so last spring — to bring the Student Court back to operation.
The court currently sits vacant as four of the seven justices graduated last year and others’ terms expired. Until at least four of seven justices are seated, the court is unable to hold meetings or issue rulings.
Stoddard said the court has “historically been inactive” due to structural and procedural issues, like a lack of clear bylaws and duties. Stoddard said the act enshrines bylaws governing justice impartiality and recusal due to conflicts of interest and creates other legal procedures, like a formal process for students to petition the court and for the court to enforce its rulings. By passing the act, Stoddard said the court will become more integrated and active in the SGA and able to serve as a better check on legislative and executive power.
“The court cannot, and is not, able to serve as a meaningful check on the executive and legislative branches,” Stoddard said, reading the statement of the bill’s sponsor SGA Sen. Alison Gendrolis (GWSB-U).
The Student Court, which consists of seven justices — at least three undergraduates and at least three graduates, one of whom must be a law student, according to the SGA constitution — solves disputes that arise within the SGA, including questions about the constitutionality or character of bills passed by the senate or conflicts between candidates and the Joint Elections Commission during campaign season.
The chief justice of the Student Court also must preside over the impeachment trials of the SGA president and vice president, according to the SGA constitution, meaning without an active court SGA President Ethan Lynne and Stoddard cannot be meaningfully removed from office.
Students passed a referendum in last spring’s elections, allowing the SGA Senate to amend the court’s bylaws, whereas previously the court’s bylaws were independent of the SGA. The referendum also included two-year term limits for associate justices and a one-year term limit for serving as chief justice, changes aiming to bring the student court more in line with the SGA’s other branches and hold it more accountable through increased senate oversight of its bylaws.
The new bylaws passed by the senate create two new “lower courts” underneath the seven-justice Student Court, which will each consist of three associate justices from the main Student Court. The Constitutional Court will handle all cases involving the constitutionality of legislation or executive action and interpretation of the SGA constitution and bylaws, while the Elections Court will have jurisdiction over disputes related to election procedures and the JEC, which administrates the SGA’s annual spring elections.
The court’s chief justice, who is elected among the seven justices on the Student Court, will assign the associate justices to their respective lower courts and will decide which cases go to which court for consideration but will not be allowed to serve on either of the lower courts, according to the act. The chief justice also has the discretion to hear cases on an emergency basis and bypass assigning them to either of the two lower courts.
Last academic year, the Student Court had seven seated justices but only heard one case — a complaint against the SGA for alleged “inaction” during pro-Palestinian protests on campus last spring, which it dismissed due to the plaintiffs not submitting necessary documentation.
Mathew Reis, the secretary of the SGA Senate who wrote the act, said the senate needed to pass the act because the Student Court’s existing bylaws were inadvertently lost after the justices managing them graduated and the content of their GW Google Drive accounts were deleted. He said the new bylaws contain requirements for monthly court meetings and more stringent recordkeeping, like appointing a court clerk, so precedent and documentation will not be lost from year to year.
“A big thing with past courts, or certain past courts, not all, is they were very inactive, to the point where they were so inactive that we lost bylaws, and we lost court precedent,” Reis said.
Reis said the “unofficial timeline” for filling the court with new justices is to have all seven nominated by the end of November, but confirmations could take longer as SGA senators hold hearings and debate the justices’ nominations.
The referendum passed last spring also amended the SGA constitution to streamline the process for filling vacancies on the court by converting vacant seats into “at-large” positions, permitting graduate or undergraduate students from any college to fill the seat.
“We’re pushing for a court, but we also don’t want to rush it,” Reis said. “Because we want to make sure that the court is as good as we can get.”
Lynne also said at the meeting he has been “in communication” with University President Ellen Granberg’s office about increasing transparency about GW-specific policies regarding where National Guard troops are and are not allowed on campus. He added that he will serve on GW’s working group for budget matters to represent student interests as the University addresses ongoing budget issues, including a $24 million deficit.
Granberg announced at a Faculty Senate meeting in September officials were forming a working group on budget matters to advise senior leadership on “additional measures” the University may need to take to address its financial struggles.
Stoddard said the SGA secured 10 percent child care discounts for graduate students through KinderCare — a day care center chain with over a dozen locations in the D.C. area — and a 10 percent discount for child care at the Goddard School of Ashburn for students studying on GW’s Virginia Science and Technology Campus in Ashburn, Virginia. Stoddard outlined her plans to extend child care discounts to graduate and law students in her vice presidential platform and reaffirmed those commitments as she began efforts this year to increase collaboration with the Student Bar Association.
SBA Vice President Quinn Biever also attended the meeting, pledging to pursue joint initiatives and increase collaboration between the two governing bodies. Biever said he wants the SGA and SBA to collaborate on raising awareness about federal immigration activity on campus and help to build unity between undergraduate, graduate and law students.
“I think having each other’s back, both as grads and undergrads, is important in general and especially right now,” Biever said.
SGA senators also voted unanimously to confirm new SGA Sens. Amna Hussain (GSEHD-G) and Jivan Ramesh (Law-G) to fill vacant senate seats.
The SGA will hold its next meeting on Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. in the University Student Center Grand Ballroom.
