The UF Supreme Court of the Student Body ruled unanimously Wednesday that the ability of some members of the executive committee to vote for nominees twice is unconstitutional.
Prior to the ruling, three members of the executive committee who are also members of the Senate — the Senate president, Senate pro-tempore and the Budget and Appropriations chairperson — were part of the nomination process for executive branch positions, such as agency heads and cabinet directors.
Those three members were then allowed to vote a second time as Senate members on whether to approve a nominee for the position.
Student Body President Joselin Padron-Rasines submitted a petition Sept. 18 regarding the constitutionality of the current executive committee’s double voting.
The petition stated that in recent years, the executive committee has had powers not allotted in the constitution, such as the selection of the executive cabinet, adviser and agency heads.
The petition was also created in response to the gridlock in Senate over summer, when there was a 105-day gap between agency head nominations by the executive committee.
Padron-Rasines vetoed reforms to the 500 codes of the Student Body Statutes in August due to a clause allowing the three members of the UF Student Senate to vote twice for members appointed by the executive branch: once during the nomination process and once during the Senate approval process. This violates the separation of powers, according to the petition.
Padron-Rasines said there is a clear separation of powers in the UF constitution and that the three members having two votes violates that separation.
"I’m happy with the way the Supreme Court ruled," said Padron-Rasines. "I’m glad that tonight the Supreme Court chose to stand by the constitution."
Contact Caitlin Ostroff at costroff@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @ceostroff
