Term 4 - Judiciary: The 4th Time is the Charm

[zorven]

Donsig has requested the following Judicial Review:

I would like to request a Judicial Review of the special election that was held for Chief Justice in term one. I would like a review of it's legality, specifically in light of (though not limited to) Article G of our constitution.

This court took the perspective of what laws were in effect when the various elections began. The original elections for Chief Justice (CJ) and the Associate Justices (AJ) were begun after Article G was in force.

Article G:
All elected positions shall have a fixed term. All vacant 
            elected positions shall be filled by appointment of a 
            citizen to fulfill the remainder of the term.

At the end of this election (Dec 31), a tie for CJ existed. CoL F and CoL H deal with vacant positions and tied elections, but they did not become law until Jan 1 and Jan 5 (respectively).

CoL F.5.a:
a.  Should more than one citizen tie with the highest 
        totals, a run-off election lasting 2 days shall be 
        immediately posted listing only the tied citizens.

CoL H.1:
1.  Leader positions that remain unfilled after an election 
      shall be filled via appointment by the President.

At this point the CJ position is vacant as there was no winner, and 2 people cannot hold one office. Therefore, the CJ should have been appointed according Article G. However, Article G did not specifiy who should make the appointment and thus cannot be carried out. So we now have a vacant position and no law dictating how to fill a vacant position. The next thing to happen is that CoL F becomes law (Jan 1). It specifies that tied elections are to be decided using a special election. But this does not apply to our situation because at the time CoL F becomes law the elections are over. CoL cannot be applied retroactively to the election. We still have a vacant office. Next, CoL H becomes law (Jan 5). CoL H says that Leader positions that remain unfilled after an election are to be appointed by the President. This can be applied to the current situation, and thus the CJ should be appointed by the President.

HOWEVER, before CoL H became law, the moderators authorized a special election to fill the CJ position. This special election began and ended before CoL H became law and thus the CJ position was not vacant when CoL H became law.

OPINION
At the time of the special election was held, we had an unfilled leader position that could not be resolved under the current laws. The moderators made a decision to hold a special election in order for the game to continue. As the actions of the moderators were not contradicting existing law, and the moderators were acting in their official capacity to ensure a functioning game, we find that the special election for Chief Justice stands.

This opinion is supported by a 3-0 vote of Justices zorven, Vander, and DaveShack.

 

[DaveShack]

I confirm the ruling in T2-JR1-Special Elections

DaveShack
Associate Justice, Term 4

 

[zorven]

donsig has requested the following Judicial Review:

I would like to ask for a Judicial Review of Section I of the CoL. Specifically, can newly elected leaders legally post game play instructions before their term actually begins?

This review was prompted by the well-intentioned efforts of one president to orchestrate a transfer of power to the next term's president, by scheduling a turn chat which spanned the end of one term and beginning of the next. Some equally well-intentioned leaders-elect decided that if turns would be played while they were responsible, they would be duty bound to provide instructions, thus instructions were posted before the preceeding term ended.

Looking more closely at the law, it is apparent that posting of instructions before a term begins is logically impossible, if all pertinent laws are followed.

CoL F.3:
3.  The following offices shall have one calendar month
      terms, beginning on the first day of that month
    a.  President
    b.  Minister of Internal Affairs
    c.  Minister of Defense
    d.  Minister of Foreign Affairs
    e.  Minister of Trade and Technology
    f.  Chief Justice
    g.  2 Associate Justice 
    h.  1 Provincial Governor per Province
    i.  At-Large Govenors, if needed

CoL I:
I.  Legal Instructions
  1.  A legal instruction is any instruction, posted in the 
      turn chat instruction thread at least one hour prior 
      to the start of the turn chat, by a citizen empowered 
      to do so, within the limitations of the office the 
      citizen is representing.

OPINION
According to CoL F.3, a Leader's term does not begin until the 1st day of the month. It is at this time that the citizen becomes empowered to post legal instructions. Any posts made by this citizen prior to the 1st of the month are merely posts by a citizen and carry no weight of the office to which the citizen has been elected, even if the content of the post was meant to be valid after the beginning of the month.

This opinion is supported by a 3-0 vote of Justices zorven, Vander, and DaveShack.

 

[DaveShack]

I confirm the ruling in T2-JR9.

DaveShack
Associate Justice

 

[zorven]

Well, it looks time has run out for us just when we getting a head of steam on us! I would like to thank Vander and DaveShack for volunteering their services this term - they both acted in a professional and courteous manner in our discussions and I enjoyed working with them both.

 

[Vander]

Ghost Justice (me): I also agree with my collegues as to the rulings in T2-JR1-Special Elections and T2- JR9.