IUSA exec asked to step down

In a move that has stirred student government emotions, IU Student Association President Tyson Chastain has asked junior Shane Merriweather to step down from his post as executive policy director. In response, Merriweather filed a reinstatement petition with the Student Body Supreme Court, but was denied Thursday.\n"I have been asked to resign, and I said 'no,'" Merriweather said in a phone interview Thursday evening.\nHe declined to comment further, citing an impending lawsuit.\nChastain would not discuss specific issues as to why Merriweather is being asked to leave his post. \n"These are personal issues," Chastain said.\nAccording to the Court's majority decision, delivered by Chief Justice Brian Clifford, IU Supreme Court does not have jurisdiction over claims involving the IUSA constitution, except for issues of election disputes. Merriweather must now take the case to Indiana state court. \n"(Merriweather's) relief ... is under the laws of the State of Indiana, not the internal regulations of the Indiana University Student Association over which this court has jurisdiction," according to the decision. \nBut in a dissenting opinion delivered by Associate Justice Nicholas Capezza, the majority members of the Court were "shirk(ing) their duties" by claiming a lack of jurisdiction.\n"We do the entire University a gross disservice by not accepting disputes of this kind into our subject-matter jurisdiction," the dissent says.\nMerriweather is running for IUSA president under the College Party ticket.\n-- Contact Senior Writer Rick Newkirk at