IUSA Supreme Court justice resigns, indicates 'failures'

Dear President Oakman and Chief Justice Cioffi:\nMy name is Stephen Aquila. I am a senior and currently at the end of my three-year term on the IUSA Supreme Court. With one or two exceptions, I am the longest-serving member of IUSA currently in office. This is a letter of explanation. It is the least I owe the student body.\nOver the last sixteen months, the Court became something other than what it should have been. We were too timid to take on new responsibilities, and worried more about capturing and defending the Court's power than we did about the students. The Court became an end in itself. We were better than the rest of student government, and dared not sully ourselves by working with others to protect student rights. I wonder: Who did we think we were?\nWhat has the Court done in that time? We have installed new members, updated our Web site, and held conferences with the judicial boards to improve the efficacy of the student judicial process. We have also spoken out against any amendments that might threaten our power, warned against the changes in the new constitution more out of fear of change than any real knowledge of how to improve IUSA, ruled that the Elections Commission is non-judicial, given ourselves the ability to violate due process whenever we so desire, and made ourselves binders full of useful documents.\nOne paragraph of accomplishments and embarrassments describes an entire branch of IUSA's work for a full year. No wonder students wonder what their government does.\nWe have been quite busy in the last few weeks, though. A lot has happened with the elections, and our actions need to be explained, as well.\nFirst, the elections results should have been released on the day following the election, not weeks later. We had no right to allow the student body to be held in suspense like that. \nSecond, why did the Court vote as it did? The majority opinion explains everything…and nothing at all. It explains how Kirkwood\'s rights were protected as the accused, they deserve the protection of the law. However, it does not explain how the rights of the student body were protected. We forgot. It is fine, we said, to send the biggest piece of spam in IU history, as long as you can pay for it. Were greek pledges intimidated into voting and working for Kirkwood? Who knows? None came forward to tell us. If there was intimidation, I must congratulate them on a job thoroughly done. As for the smoking gun that was the VOTETRACKER letter, Bill Gray told us that it wasn\'t smoke, just fog on our glasses. The majority chose to believe him. That is their prerogative.\nThird, why did we certify the elections? Because we ruled the results were valid. Whatever any of us thought about Kirkwood, it is not our place to change things if the results are ruled valid. The certification is more than a rubber-stamp. It is an imprimatur. With it, we give our word that those results can be trusted. I voted to certify this election, as did the Court, since we were all a party to the decision that rendered it valid. And with our certification, we made a mockery of ourselves.\nNow it is my turn. Can I certify the Court's acts as I certified the elections? I find I cannot. I cannot even certify my own performance. All the failures I have talked about, the timidity, the aloofness, the guilt, they are mine as much as they are anyone else\'s. Above, I implied the Court is never held responsible for its actions. That is true. We have never been called to account. However, with the measure I judge others I must judge myself, and I judge harshly. The last straw, the act that convinced me that I have failed, was the vote to drop all penalties against Kirkwood on the intimidation charges.\nI could have threatened to resign if the other justices chose to vote that way, but whining and threatening are poor ways to prove the merits of one\'s case. I did my best to convince them to agree with me, but they did not. So I completed my duty as a justice and stayed with the Court through the decision.\nMy work is done now, though. The Court is perfectly capable of running without me, and I cannot in good conscience stay on now that I have been a party to such massive mistakes. As a member of the student body, I now must demand my own resignation from the IUSA Supreme Court.\nAs I write this, I find myself smiling. I guess there is some accountability after all, even if it is only with my own conscience.\nSincerely,\nStephen Aquila\nAssociate Justice, IUSA Supreme Court\nChairman of the Judicial Committee