Staff editorial: IUSA President threatens judicial independence

Last week, IU Student Association President Michael Coleman threatened the judicial independence of the IUSA Supreme Court.

After an unexpected vacancy arose on the court, a rigorous application and interview process selected a highly qualified candidate for the position of associate justice and forwarded the nomination to the IUSA president for approval.

This is the normal process that has occurred for the past decade.

For the past 10 years, IUSA president after IUSA president have trusted in the Supreme Court’s ability to choose its own members and approved these nominations before forwarding them to Congress for their approval.

Last week, however, Coleman went back on those important 10 years of judicial precedent and threatened the court. He rejected the court’s choice of Matthew Bower for associate justice and instead nominated his friend and former campaign staffer Hannah Kinkead.

This is an obvious conflict of interest and seriously threatens to undermine the perception of the Supreme Court as unbiased in its role as executive watchdog.

How can the court present an unbiased opinion in its role as watchdog of the executive branch if one of its members is an acquaintance and former campaign staffer for the person it is supposed to be checking the powers of?

It is well-documented that the perception of bias is just as damaging to the functioning of a public body as actual bias. We have no damning evidence that Ms. Kinkead will be unfairly biased in favor of the IUSA executive branch, but the mere supposition that she might be is enough to damage the reputation of the court.

The staff of the opinion page at the Indiana Daily Student has long felt that the various bodies that make up IUSA are mostly inefficient, disorganized and potentially corrupt institutions.

The IU Supreme Court, on the other hand, has been the only institution within the framework of IUSA which deserves a good reputation.

They have arbitrated election disputes (even deciding recent IUSA elections) in an extremely fair and professional way. They have rigorously upheld IUSA’s constitution when it was threatened.

This appointment threatens that reputation and hard work in a very real way.

Congress should decline to approve Coleman’s nomination. It goes against well-established and well-founded judicial precedent, starts a dangerous tradition of basing appointments on friendships and acquaintances and seriously undermines judicial independence and bias.