In a landmark ruling severely curtailing the Senate’s authority over its discretionary budget, the Union Judiciary has unanimously ruled in favor of Eric Alterman in the case of Alterman v. Senate.
Ruling that “[t]he presentation of past SMR-assisted events merely solidified this court’s belief that the Senate has not always adhered to the bylaw in question,” the Court essentially ensured that in the future, the Senate will no longer be allowed to co-sponsor pre-planned events. The implications of today’s decision are wide-ranging. In the past, money has been distributed to events such as:
-The Brandeis Open Mic Series presentation of activist poet Jason Paul
-The Prospect Hill barbecue
-The Advocates student rights workshop
-The Winter Gala in support of HopeFound
From the precedent set by the Court today, none of these events would have been possible. In the future, events struggling for money will have to seek out other sources of sponsorship.
On the plus side, however, we now have plenty of money left for Midnight Buffet!
Full text of the decision follows (with concurrences!):