Student Government’s highest judicial body ruled Tuesday to uphold a lower court’s decision allowing Colorado Robertson to run for office in the spring SG election.
In a 3-2 vote, the University Court upheld the University Trail Court’s ruling that Robertson, a dairy science senior, did not break the election code, which would have disqualified him from running for Agricultural College Council President.
Crawford Leavoy, SG co-director of minority affairs, accused Robertson in the lower court case of breaking the election code by actively campaigning before March 2 at 4:30 p.m. — the time at which the code allows active campaigning to begin.
Robertson announced his candidacy at the Jan. 27 meeting of the Agricultural Student Association.
Leavoy said the meeting was a public forum and that Robertson’s announcement should be defined as active campaigning.
According to the election code, one of the definitions of active campaigning is an announcement of intent to run for office in a public forum.
The University Court ruled the meeting was not a public forum because not all students were invited to attend. As a result, Robertson’s comments do not qualify as active campaigning and do not break the election code.
Devil Reid, counsel to Robertson and commissioner of the election board, said he felt the court made the right decision.
“I believe the majority of the justices gave the strict interpretations of the code — as they are required to do,” Reid said.
Had the appeals court chosen to overturn the trial court’s decision, Robertson would have been disqualified from spring elections.
“The Court chose to rule the way it did because disqualification was too harsh a punishment for the actions done by Robertson,” said Neal Hebert, chief justice of the University Court. “If it hadn’t been for the push for disqualification, I would have ruled in favor of Leavoy. It would have changed the outcome of the case.”
Leavoy said he pushed for the maximum penalty because he thinks Robertson broke the “letter and the spirit of the law.”
Though Robertson — who did not attend the court’s hearing — said he is pleased by the court’s decision, he is disappointed that Leavoy asked for his disqualification.
“I have no hard feelings toward Leavoy,” Robertson said, “but we both could have been spending our time doing more productive things.”
Robertson said he understands that he made mistakes, but he hopes to learn from them.
“I made mistakes that night, but SG is a learning experience,” Robertson said. “I think people should try to help you learn from your mistakes, not try to tear you down.”
Robertson said this was a perfect example of how the judicial process works.
“This is a great way for students to work out their differences,” Robertson said. “This shows that Student Government works, and now, I am looking forward to a good, clean election season.”