TNF v. Windjammer

[Oakvale]

This has been seen.

[Oakvale]

The Court is considering whether to grant certiorari on this matter. At issue, of course, is whether the Supreme Court is the appropriate entity to rule on matters of Senate procedure - in other words, whether a procedural Senate election can be treated identically to a regular public election. There is, however, a case to be made that the Supreme Court is the only body that can reasonably issue any kind of ruling on lawsuits involving procedural Senate issues - I refer to this as the "who else?" argument.

The decision on certiorari will be posted in the coming days, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

In the mean time, I am issuing a temporary injunction on the certification of Senator NC Yankee as President pro tempore of the Senate pending a decision on either dismissal of this matter or, in the event that certiorari is granted, a resolution to the case.

[Oakvale]

As I mentioned in my post above, there was some discussion about whether it was appropriate for the Supreme Court to hear a case on what ultimately boils down to a question of Senate procedure. My arguments laid out above stand - perhaps most peruasively, the Senate election for a president pro tempore is not comparable to, say, electing a head of a private club, a situation in which the Supreme Court would have no right to intervene. The Senate is a public body, a branch of government that is necessarily, as with the executive branch, kept in check by the Supreme Court.

The election of a president pro tempore is a particularly important national matter that affects the passage of legislation, and, as a result, all Atlasian citizens. Furthermore, the simple fact is that there is no other court of law that could conceivably resolve such a dispute, other than this Court - Nyman, and the Senate, are not part of any region and not subject to regional legal jurisdiction. The 'who else?' argument also swayed our decision in choosing to hear this matter. As such,

Official Atlasia Supreme Court Release
Nyman, DC

Writ of Certiorari

The Supreme Court of Atlasia grants certiorari to hear the question of whether Vice President Windjammer's decision to discard write-in votes for Senator TNF in the election for president pro tempore was in violation of established Senate procedural rules and precedent, and whether Senator TNF's rights were infringed upon by this decision.

Schedule

Petitioner has one week to file his brief.  It is expected no later than 6:00PM EDT on Saturday, August 2, 2014.

Respondent has an additional seventy-two hours to file his brief.  It is expected no later than 6:00PM EDT on Tuesday, August 5, 2014.

Amicus Briefs will be accepted until 6:00PM EDT on Tuesday, August 5, 2014, unless the filing party can show sufficient need.

Additional time may be granted to either party upon a showing of sufficient need, and the right of either party to respond to the filed briefs may be granted upon request.

A period of argument (Q&A) will be scheduled after presentation of the briefs in case any member of the Court has any questions for the parties.

[Oakvale]

I'll allow that Windjammer, no problem.

[Oakvale]

*bangs gavel*

Thank you, gentlemen. The period for public discussion of the case in this court is now over. Any further attempts to present argument or otherwise influence the Court will ignored, unless they are a direct response to questions posed by the Chief Justice, myself, or Associate Justice Torie

[Oakvale]

Since we're acutely aware that the injunction on the certification of the PPT election is still in place, the Court hopes to reach a resolution on this case as soon as possible given the nuances of the matter in order that the Senate can resume normal operations. With that in mind, I do have a couple of quick questions for the Vice-President -

This touched upon with former President Duke has already mentioned - Senator TNF wrote his name in, something that's considered legally equivalent to a declaration of acceptance for write-in votes throughout the nation - in Atlasia at large, a write-in candidate is distinct from a formal candidate only in their lack of ballot status and their time of declaration - upon accepting such, they legally receive write-in votes and can be elected to office. The question's this - what distinguishes Senator TNF's write-in of his own name from a formal declaration of candidacy?


Secondly, it's true from your commendably extensive research that a large majority of PPT elections had no write-in option explicitly declared. But could the fact that many of those were effectively uncontested mean the comparisons between those historic elections and this competitive election are inherently limited?  The pool of truly competitive Senate elections is far smaller, no?

And (while we unfortunately lack a means of time travel within this Court in order to test this theory), though a small minority of the total, do the elections in which a Write-in Option was explicitly specified not arguably imply a general understanding that write-in votes were allowed?

[Oakvale]

Thank you Mr. Vice President, no further questions from me.

[Oakvale]

Can someone explain what solution is being debated here? Is a PPT to be elected? If not, this case will continue to be discussed and we will issue our ruling in the coming week.

[Oakvale]

It seems like there is no case here any longer since the then-Vice-President counted the write-in votes before his resignation.

[Oakvale]

Official Atlasia Supreme Court Release
Nyman, DC

Notice of Dismissal

Since the issue at hand is no longer pertinent with the resignation of the Vice-President, his counting of the contested votes, and the election of the petitioner as President pro tempore, and the Court has historically avoided issuing any form of advisory ruling, TNF v. Windjammer can clearly no longer continue.

The case is dismissed.