ASB attorney general Rob Pillow investigating constitutionality of ruling by judicial council
By Jared Senseman, junior journalism major, Meek School of Journalism and New Media
jrsensem@go.olemiss.edu
The recent ASB Judicial Council decision finding the title of “Colonel Reb” unconstitutional is now the subject of an ASB investigation as to its own ASB constitutionality, with the results of an investigation by current ASB Attorney General Rob Pillow scheduled to be made public on Monday.
Announced on Tuesday, the Judicial Council decision has touched off a storm of debate on the Ole Miss campus, pitting former ASB officers such as former Judicial Council Chair Courtney Pearson, who is defending the ruling as “final,” against the former ASB attorney general, who questions the decision on procedural and other constitutional grounds.
Following the ruling, current ASB President Gregory Alston questioned the way in which the decision was made by the Judicial Council. “I don’t think the students had a voice in this decision.”
Among other alleged flaws, Keifer said the decision bypassed him as ASB attorney general and was instead sent directly to the judicial council and Associate Dean of Students, Melinda Carlson.
“It’s not anything that’s binding if you get the procedure wrong.” Kiefer stated. “Then it gets tossed out. It had to go through the right channels.”
A bill to rename Colonel Reb originally was proposed in the ASB’s Student Life Committee last year but the proposal received little support. “It just wasn’t popular in the committee and it wasn’t popular in the senate,” Keifer said. “We didn’t like it, we didn’t agree with it.”
In a letter written by he and former Deputy Attorney General for Code and Constitution Pierce Lee, Kiefer and Lee said the anonymous complaint that precipitated the Judicial Council ruling on March 25 is also constitutionally questionable on other grounds.
“According to Rule 3 of Section 101 on page 42 of the ASB Code and Constitution, the complaint must satisfy five conditions. According to the first two conditions, the complaint must identify both the complainant and the defendant, and whether either party involved is a student, an officer of an organization, or a member of the ASB. This requirement is impossible to fulfill with an anonymous complaint,” they wrote.
“We do not know whether the complainant complied with the other three conditions as the complaint was not made available nor properly filed or addressed to the Attorney General in the ASB office (Rule 5, part A).”
Kiefer said that the reason he was bypassed could have been due to to a lack of official office hours during the week of transition between the current ASB staff to the newly elected officers. He added, however, that the complaint could have easily been filed through his office, and that it’s well known that no major decisions are to be made during transition periods.
“”It’s quite clear that if you wanted to contact me. you could email and call,” he said.
Kiefer said Associate Dean of Students Melinda Carlson and the judicial council invited both him and current ASB Attorney General Rob Pillow to the meeting in which the decision declaring the Col. Reb title unconstitutional was made, but after waiting outside for an hour, he said Pearson came out and told them they weren’t needed.
“I had asked Melinda (Carlson) and Pearson what the meeting would be about and all they would say is that it had something to do with the constitution. They refused to explain,” Kiefer said. “They wouldn’t even let us in the meeting. We waited outside for an hour. We were never even allowed inside the room.”
In an email from Courtney Pearson, chair of the judicial council, Pearson said the process was constitutionally sound, and that the vote was unanimous.
“In regards to the recent decision about the election of Colonel Reb, the procedure outlined in the ASB Code and Constitution was followed and executed with the proper process,” she stated. “The decision was voted on and (it was) unanimously concluded that the title of ‘Colonel Reb’ was unconstitutional. As judicial chair, I do not vote in the proceedings.”
Kiefer, however, doesn’t believe that the decision should reflect the ASB as a whole, since it was allegedly made by a select few who were aware of it.
“Most people will associate [this decision] with the whole of ASB and that’s not fair. It is not an actual representative of ASB. It’s Courtney and the judicial branch sticking it to the rest of us and saying ‘deal with it’,” he said. “They’ve had the entire year to do this. To magically have a complaint before inauguration is so suspect.”
The timeline for the decision is not a problem for Sean Higgins, president of the Ole Miss College Democrats and current ASB senator. Higgins said that the proper authorities, namely the attorney general, were notified of the decision.
“The judicial branch, from my understanding, made the decision and promptly informed the attorney general,” he said. “The attorney general knew of the decision for as long as a week before it was made available to the public and to the ASB Senate. It is not the Judicial Council’s job to publicize the opinions they rule.”
Higgins said that student opinion in this matter was more or less irrelevant, and that the judicial council’s primary focus was the constitutionality of the title of “Colonel Reb.”
“I’m not concerned with the lack of student input, given that this decision was made by the Judicial Council and not the Senate. The Judicial branch of government never takes polls of students, or anyone, for that matter,” he said.
“It is not the nature of the judicial system to take popular consideration into account, given that the judicial branch is only focused on the constitutionality of the code and other legislation. Plus, Judicial Council is made up of students – students made this decision.”
The question now is whether or not the ruling will stand, which is hard to answer with the former ASB members saying it’s final, and the current members saying it may not be. The outcome will depend on whether or not the ASB will declare the process to have been unconstitutional.
Morgan Gregory, newly inaugurated ASB vice president, has shown concern towards the outcome as well.
“My concern at this point is not a matter of content but process. Our first priority as administration is making sure the code and constitution is upheld and students are not kept in the dark,” she stated.
“According to the current judicial ruling, it is now the job of the senate to select and pass a new title for the personality election. If the process if found to be unconstitutional, the ruling will be null and void.”
To current Ole Miss “Colonel Reb” Austin Harris, the key learning point from the entire ordeal is transparency and student awareness.
“This is not a decision that should be made by a few students behind closed doors,” he said. “This is a decision that should receive input from the entire student body. I would like to see a committee established which is similar to the mascot committee. This committee would select two or three titles, and the student body would vote on it. If the committee decides that ‘Colonel Reb’ should be one of these titles, then so be it.
“This is an issue that goes beyond the ASB and has an impact on the entire student body. Therefore, the entire student body should have a voice.”
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