“(The SA has) basically gotten rid of a system of checks and balances.”
– Stan Rubins, former chief justice of the University Student Court

The University Student Court of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is not in operation after the chief justice resigned on Friday, Feb. 24, amid a battle over the court’s budget.

The budget was approved at a Feb. 4 Student Association Senate meeting, but SA President Russ Rueden vetoed it and the Senate will not attempt to override it, Rueden said.

The court’s budget had been frozen for most of the fiscal year because there were not three justices — a condition required by the Senate’s bylaws — until November, when Amy Turrin was appointed by the Senate.

Stan Rubins, former chief justice, said the move to freeze the court’s budget means that the association has “basically gotten rid of a system of checks and balances.”

“The level of involvement outside SA to press SA to act is minimal,” Rubins said.

Tom McGinnity, interim dean of Students, said the SA requested sometime in the fall that the court’s budget be frozen.

Rubins said that the association does not have the power to freeze the court’s budget.

McGinnity said the affair was a “miscommunication of procedures within student government.”

Rueden said that the court did not go through the Senate to have its budget approved.

“They’re (the Senate) really pretty flexible as long as you work with them,” Rueden said.

McGinnity said that the SA Senate passed a bill last year that authorized its bylaws to override bylaws of all other student organizations.

“It’s kind of silly for them to take that money back,” Rubins said.

Neal Michals, deputy shared governance director for the SA, said the Senate’s role is that of having the “power of the purse strings.”

Michals said the current role of the court is “not the ideal situation.”

The court mainly handles Parking & Transit tickets, Rubins said before he resigned, but it also serves to educate students in the process.

“We work with students to help students,” Rubins said.

The University Student Court last year had all five justice positions filled, including one by Rueden.

Rueden stepped down as chief justice in the spring last year before the elections were held, bringing the total number of justices on the court to three — Rubins, Ben Butz and Jessica Craig-Zahn — and elevating Rubins to chief justice.

Over the summer, Craig-Zahn resigned, leaving Rubins and Butz as the only justices and the court out of operation.

During the summer, the court ruled on the disputed SA elections, awarding the presidency to Rueden.

Rueden said that the application process to fill the three justice seats is ongoing. He said that some of the applications that had been filed so far had showed that they were not qualified individuals.

“It’s important to have a fair, really educated group of people on the court,” Rueden said. He said the court had decided nearly all of the SA elections for the past 20 years.

Rueden said that he hopes to have the court operational by the time the elections are held in early April.

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