Senate considers justice nominees

The Weber State University Student Senate came together for their weekly meeting on Monday to work on the issue of the WSU Supreme Court. Three candidates attended to be reviewed by the senate for the available positions of chief justice and the two associate justices of the WSU Supreme Court. The candidate for the WSU Supreme Court Chief Justice, Alexandra Allen, stood and introduced the other two candidates for associate justices.
“Both are really good candidates,” Allen said. “Both are really willing to put in a lot of effort into helping the supreme court make the changes that I have wanted for the supreme court.”
Lisa Francis, a junior and psychology major at WSU, was the first of the two to introduce herself. Francis has not participated in WSU student government before and expressed her enthusiasm for the possible opportunity to do so. Some of the senators later expressed concern over the fact that she has not been a part of WSU student leadership before. Francis answered their concerns by explaining what qualifies her.
“I think I’ll be a good candidate,” Francis said. “I’m hard-working about the things that I care about. I think this is something that I’ll have a lot of fun with and to be able to work with everyone.”
Parliamentarian Josh Meservey, a junior majoring in political science who has already worked as part of the senate, then introduced himself as the candidate for the second associate justice position.
When both candidates had finished their introductions, the senators took about 10 minutes to interview the WSU Supreme Court candidates. Legislative Vice President Elene Kvernadze explained the importance of this process.
“I just want to emphasize how big of a responsibility it is that the senate gets to decide who to elect into these positions,”  Kvernadze said. “So it’s very important that we ask questions that need to be asked so to make the right decision.”
The questions were primarily based on each candidate’s qualifications, and what they would do as WSU Supreme Court justices to benefit WSU.
“I’ve just wanted to be on the supreme court,” Meservey said. “Of course, I’ve been the parliamentarian for a while. I took that position because, number one, I wanted to know how senate meetings go and just about how we go about making legislation here at Weber State. And number two, I wanted to get my foot in the door so I could possibly get myself a little somewhere in the student association. I want to be a part of Weber State’s family. I want to be able to help them out whenever I can and use my skills to better all of us.”
Because there is currently no one on the supreme court who is qualified to confirm the new associate justices, Senate President Tyler Lathem will be trained in the next week in order to hold a vote and confirmation for Francis and Meservey at the next meeting on Monday, March 22.
After the interview of the associate justice candidates, the senators voted to confirm Alexandra Allen as chief justice of the WSU Supreme Court. The approval was unanimous for Allen.