This Year’s First Judicial Council Decision Imminent

The ASUC Student Legal Clinic seems to be in a state of turmoil after its co-directors sued each other over changes to the group’s constitution. The Judicial Council has issued a preliminary injunction to stop any SLC funds from being spent until the dispute has been resolved.

Daily Cal Article

The Judicial Council has only issued a preliminary order – they have not announced whether or not the case will be heard. However, it seems that a hearing is inevitable due to the status of the situation.

There are two key issues:

1) Is the ASUC SLC a student activities group, and subject to the regulations of any other OSL group? If not, what is its standing? Is it an ASUC-sponsored project?

2) How does the answer to question #1 affect the validity of the SLC Constitution and the ability of the Judicial Council to rule on it?

My take on the situation is that this group is run and recognized in the same matter that ASUC SUPERB is. In that regard, the SLC is an ASUC-sponsored project, and the Judicial Council cannot rule on the validity of its constitution in this case.

However, this theory opens up a whole new can of worms. If this is true, who has jurisdiction over the group? According to my interpretation, the ASUC Senate currently does. A quote from Article VI, Section 1A of the ASUC Constitution:

“The Senate has sole authority over the ASUC funded budgets of student government operations, operations groups, projects, student services, and activity groups and publications, and is responsible for approving the overall ASUC budget each year.”

But no one really wants the SLC to get lost in the bureaucracy of the Senate. The simple solution seems to be to write a new section in the by-laws for the group that incorporates the current constitution. The SLC should be placed under the jurisdiction of either the President’s office or that of the Student Advocate. Until then, though, I guess it has to work with what it currently has: a constitutional crisis and a stopped line of funding.
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