Senate Appoints Two Undergraduates to Judicial Council

Correction Appended

The ASUC Senate appointed two justices to the ASUC Judicial Council at its meeting Wednesday night, bringing the number of justices on the nine-seat council to four.

The senate approved the appointment of sophomore Kiira Johal and junior Joseph Guzman as associate justices. Two undergraduate justices still need to be appointed to the council.

“I think it’s great the senate was able to confirm two justices last night,” said Judicial Council Chair Kate Feng. “Five justices is definitely better than three.”

Senators questioned the nominees about their political party affiliation as well as their interpretations of the ASUC bylaws and constitution.

Guzman held a position in the office of former vice president of external affairs Jason Chu last year. Johal currently holds a position in the office of Academic Affairs Vice President Curtis Lee working with the Undergraduate/Graduate Mentorship Program, but she said the positions do not pose a conflict of interest.

“I do not believe it is a conflict of interest,” she said. “If a case were to come up that dealt with the Undergraduate/Graduate Mentorship Program, I believe I would have the integrity to recuse myself.”

Guzman was appointed later in the meeting after a discussion of the importance of joining the council with a wide knowledge of the ASUC constitution, as Guzman said he had not yet found time to thoroughly review the constitution.

“If I were appointed, I would take a more active role in reading through the constitution in addition to reading through before any sort of meeting of the Judicial Council,” he said.

When asked about the importance of previous knowledge about the constitution and bylaws, Feng said the best experience for justices comes from actually sitting on the council.

The senate’s Constitutional and Procedural Review committee will interview four more undergraduate nominees to the judicial council this week, said Student Action Senator Lisa Patel, who chairs the committee.

One graduate student currently sits on the council, although three spots are reserved for graduate students.

Patel said no graduate students are currently set to be interviewed.

Graduate Assembly President Joshua Daniels said that since the first two weeks of the year have passed, he can no longer directly nominate candidates to the council but has to ask an ASUC senator or ASUC President Van Nguyen to nominate for him.

However, Daniels said he has suggested one graduate student and has been in contact with another graduate student who has “expressed interest” in the judicial council.

Correction: Friday’s article “Senate AppointsTwo Undergraduate Justices to the Judicial Council” stated that two new justices brought the total number to four. In fact, the total number of justices currently on the council is five.

The Daily Californian regrets the error.

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