Court Intrigue

[Pauline Bonaparte]

Court Intrigue

Special elections held late last month led to the election of two new Justices of the Court of the North Pacific, after widespread controversy over a Court decision led to the resignation of one justice amid allegations of gross misconduct and the vacancy of another seat due to inactivity.

Severisen and Funkadelia were elected to replace Grosseschnauzer and Democratic Donkeys on the bench last month. Considerable controversy ended in Grosseschnauzer's resignation following a ruling on a review request widely seen as close to the former Justice's interests. The ruling, which appeared to be written entirely by Grosseschnauzer without the input of the Court's other justices, led to accusations from several citizens of misconduct on Grosseschnauzer's part.

[...]

Special elections for the two newly-vacant seats led to the election of Funkadelia and Severisen, as well as discussions in the Regional Assembly about adjusting election schedules so that special elections do not occur so closely to regular ones. The field for the February special election was wide, with nominees Funkadelia, plembobria, HuAt, Gulliver, Dumont 210, and stalin1953 running for the seat. With 15 votes, Funkadelia won the election on February 28th and took office immediately. His first term though, accomplished little as only ten days separated the end of the special election and the beginning of the regular one.

The Court seems eager to polish its image after the resignation scandal, and also appears to be trying to fight the widespread conception that it is rather lumbering and bureaucratic. Regardless of what exactly changes on the Court of the North Pacific, it seems that those changes will be long-awaited and sweeping.

The above is a very very rough draft. I would love a summary of the events that lead to Grosse's resignation, as while I have a general idea, I'm not as well-acquainted with it all as others might be and I find it hard to summarize two years of precedent and law into a 400 word article!

In addition, I was wondering if anyone could link me to the results of Sev's election, as well as to what led to DD's resignation? I still have to add a paragraph addressing that as well.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Eluvatar]

Severisen and Funkadelia were elected to replace Grosseschnauzer and Democratic Donkeys on the bench last month.

I'd restate that as:

Severisen and Funkadelia were elected to replace Democratic Donkeys and Grosseschnauzer, respectively, on the bench in two special elections last month.

But I think Severisen was actually elected earlier than last month?

 

[SillyString]

Yes, Sev was elected further back - DD vacated the seat because of inactivity.

As a brief summary, here is my recollection of events:

1) I filed a RFR in mid-november.
2) DD vacated his seat.
3) During the vacancy, Grosse published an opinion claiming it to be from the court.
4) Sev was elected, chosen as CJ, and confirmed that the prior opinion was NOT valid, as the court must have three members to make any ruling and no THO was ever appointed (there's no official ruling on whether this is the case, but practice is law until challenged). He additionally said that there was no comment from Kialga on the ruling in the private chambers, so definitely wasn't valid.
5) Grosse published essentially an identical ruling in February, I think, claiming it had support from all three Justices at various points
6) Sev stated publicly that it did NOT have his support, and that Grosse had misrepresented Kialga's opinion as well.
7) Grosse threw a fit and resigned from the Court in protest of Sev's "duplicity".
8) Sev and Kialga appointed Cormac as THO and issued a ruling within an hour.

That's it as far as I remember!