Matthew Curl, chief justice of the Student Government Association Judicial Board, declared a bill that requires 50% of SGA office hours be held in the SGA office unconstitutional. 

The bill, authored by Executive Secretary Colin Marcum, required 50% of a member’s office hours to be spent inside the SGA offices. Marcum’s bill amended parts of the SGA constitution that were outside his jurisdiction. 

Curl ordered it to be removed from the SGA Code of Laws. 

The order has not yet been posted on the SGA website, was obtained by the @insidesga Instagram account and posted online. The account sent the full order to The Crimson White.

In his opinion, Curl said the bill included “amendments made to Titles III, IV, and XII, all of which lie firmly outside the Executive Council’s jurisdiction.”

Curl said that the Judicial Board was not notified or consulted on the bill as required. While Marcum shared jurisdiction with the Senate over certain areas covered by the Bill, he did not have jurisdiction to make amendments to Titles III, IV, and XII.

The Bill amended Titles II, III, IV, V, IX, and XII, which involve the executive branch, legislative branch, judicial branch, executive cabinet, first year council, and lobby board respectively.

Six other justices on a panel reviewing the matter joined Curl in his opinion.

Curl ordered that “members of the Student Government Association take care not to overstep their bounds of authority.”

Failure to comply with the Judicial Board’s order would warrant “an investigation into the Defendant’s official conduct as Executive Secretary by the Student Government Association Student Judiciary, led by Chief Justice Curl, with the explicit understanding that a valid judicial order has been violated.”

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