The Op vs. Atlasia

[Continential]

Your honors,

I am filing suit against the Senate of Atlasia due to the appointment of "Wulfric" to the Atlasian Senate.

I am filing the suit for the two reasons which would be outlined below, with no registered citizen of Atlasia being named Wulfric, and because the Ka Hui Kūwaena o Ka Hui Liliʻuokalani fell under the threshold needed to constitute as a major party, the seat should be filled by special election.

I hereby appoint Wulfric to the Seat vacated by Laki

This is the appointment I am referring to.

Firstly, section 1a of the Census Act states that the census must list the username of every registered voter in Atlasia. In the census conducted by the Registar General of Atlasia, there is no voter which goes by the name of "Wulfric", thereby meaning that party chair Lawer has appointed nobody and the seat shall be declared unfilled as no citizen has been appointed to fill the seat.

Furthermore, according to Article 3, Section 1, 4 of the constitution, it is stated that "No person shall be a Senator who has not attained two hundred or more posts", in which there is no user named Wulfric with two hundred or more posts.

1. The Cabinet member assigned the portfolio of Census Administrator shall maintain a census document listing all registered voters in Atlasia. For each voter, the census shall list:

a. Their permanent Atlas Forum username
b. The federal and regional political parties they are registered with
c. The state they are registered in
d. The region they reside in
e. Whether or not the voter voted or attempted to vote in each of the last three federal elections.
f. If, according to the provisions of this act, a voter is presently ineligible to move regions, the date by which they shall become eligible to move regions

No person shall be a Senator who has not attained two hundred or more posts, nor whose account is fewer than fourteen hundred and forty hours old, nor shall any person be a regional or subregional senator who is not a citizen of the region or subregion they are chosen to represent.

Secondly, according to Article 3, Section 2, 1, iii of the Constitution it is stated that "should a vacancy occur as the result of the death, expulsion, or resignation of an at-large Senator not being a member of a major Party, then a special election shall be held". According to section 6 of the Census Act, it is stated that a major party constitutes as having three or more registered voters. Due to the deregistration of Lakigigar, the party fell below the threshold to be classified as a major party and thus the vacant seat held by Lakigigar must go to a special election.

iii. At-large Senate vacancies shall be filled through appointment by the executive of the former Senator’s Party; but should a vacancy occur as the result of the death, expulsion, or resignation of an at-large Senator not being a member of a major Party, then a special election shall be held within twenty days of the vacancy to choose a replacement to serve the remainder of the existing term.

6. For census purposes, a major party will be defined as having three or more registered users being part of them, minor and other parties with less than three users registering for them will be classified in "other".

I thank the Court for its time.

Best,

The Op

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

In my capacity as Attorney General, I hereby recuse myself from this case. Another cabinet member may submit a brief for the government if they so wish.

[Liminal Trans Girl]

I'm a certified Baller and that haters are mad

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

In my personal capacity, I would submit that the most logical reading of Article 2, Section 2, 1-3. of the Constitution is that it applies as of the time the vacancy is created, not at some later juncture. Laki resigned from the Senate Seat at 11:29:42 AM Eastern, before his deregistration at 11:30:23 AM Eastern. Therefore, at the time the vacancy was created, the HI Party was still a major party with 3 members, and therefore the responsibility for appointing a Senator was with the party executive, regardless of whether the party fell under major party status for a time at some later point. There was no party executive, therefore it fell to the party to elect one and then have that executive select a candidate. The executive was chosen by a majority of the members of the party and the executive appointed someone who was part of the party at that time.

I would remind the court that its precedent is to not involve itself in internal party deliberations, see Tack50 v Wulfric (2019): https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=436487.0 . People may not like the fact that the HI party had no established bylaws or chair, but it simply did not. People may surmise that ReallySuper had powers based on being the 'founder', but the constitution does not recognize that, only an 'executive', of which the party simply had none. People may not like the fact that a majority of members of the party during the raid did what they did, but the fact is there is nothing in the constitution or in the non-existent HI bylaws to prevent it, and therefore the court has no role to do so.

As far as the argument that there is no one named "Wulfric" on this site, I hereby certify under penalty of perjury to the court that Wulfric is my former username, as is an obvious recognized fact on this site. The intent of the post making the appointment is very clear as an appointment of myself. This site is littered with votes for me cast as "Dwarven", "Wulfric" or even my discord handle "Magmafeather", and numerous other users have had votes cast for them under nicknames as well, like people simply writing "Pyro" instead of PyroTheFox, "nerd" instead of Nerd73, and "lawer" or "Liminal" or "Classic Liminal" instead of Liminal Trans Girl. For the court to strike down the appointment on this basis would be to singlehandedly upend over a decade of precedent on this site regarding our wide latitude for  recongizing intent over being grammar nazis.

Thus, I would ask the court to deny the injunction and dismiss the case with full prejudice.

[Liminal Trans Girl]

We did too much trolling

[reagente]

Amicus Filing from Many Concerned Denizens Organized Nationally Against Low Down Scoundrels (MCDONALDS) in support of petitioner:

The court should reject Dwarven Dragon's reasoning, as he has advanced a concocted word salad that makes a mockery of our constitution and attempts to have it both ways.

Despite such text appearing nowhere in the Constitution, Dwarven Dragon attempts to claim that "shall be filled through appointment by the executive of the former Senator’s Party" should instead read "shall be filled through appointment by the executive of the former Senator’s Party [provided it was a major party at the resignation]". If this is true, why is it the case that the appointment would not be made by the executive at the time of the vacancy, which was ReallySuper, both as party founder and under the de facto officer doctrine? If the text implies that major party status is at time of resignation, why does it not also imply appointment is made by the party executive at time of resignation?

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

I hereby withdraw my previous brief. I instead submit to the court that we had no right to take over the convention from the party's founder or their designee in HL23, and therefore all actions that followed were invalid. I further submit to the court that I retain the viewpoint that the correct point of evaluation for how the vacancy should be filled is the party's status when the vacancy was created, and therefore the appointment of HL23 by defacto Chair ReallySuper, should be formally recognized as valid.

[Continential]

Since I filed this case, "Wulfric" or Dwarven Dragon has has resigned from the Senate seat he has claimed to held. However, Dwarven Dragon was a member of the Peace Party during the time of his resignation so if if Dwarven Dragon's tenure in the Senate was legitimate, then the Peace Party would have the power to appoint the seat.  Since the Peace Party has no chair, the seat remains in limbo even if Dwarven Dragon's tenure is legitimate. The petitioner requests clarification from the Supreme Court on this matter.

[Liminal Trans Girl]

We need reform for this