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High Court of the South Pacific
Case Submission

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Your Honours,

I, Altmoras, respectfully submit the following case for consideration by the High Court. I hereby state that the information within this submission is true, to the best of my knowledge, and that there is no malicious intent or vexatious nature to it. I further promise to make myself available to any future questions or request from the Court in order to ensure that this case is fairly considered.

Nation: The Altmoran Islanders

Reference Name: Query as to whether or not Section 2.(2) of the Legislator Committee Act actually binds the Legislator Committee

Description: I applied to become a legislator over 48 hours ago with no response from the Legislator Committee: https://tspforums.xyz/thread-9296.html

The Legislator Committee Act clearly states that The Committee shall confirm the reception of an application within 48 hours. I have received no reply in the thread, no private message on this forum, no telegram on my listed main nation or my TSP nation, and no Direct Message on Discord. Those are all the places a reasonable person could have attempted to contact me in order to confirm reception of my application as the The Legislator Committee Act mandates, but I have not received any such contact by the Committee as of the submission of this Legal Question.

Quotation of the applicable law.
"(2) A member of the Coalition may attain legislator status through an application with the Legislator Committee. The Committee shall confirm the reception of an application within 48 hours. The Committee will determine the eligibility of the applicant, consulting any other institutions of the Coalition as needed to inform its decision, and shall strive to accept or deny each applicant within a week."

Given the use of "shall confirm" in place of "attempt to confirm" or "strive to confirm" I interpret that section of constitutional law to be binding on the behavior of the Committee, however the Committee does not seem to share my interpretation. Furthermore the Committee has failed to abide by the 48 hour requirement for so many other potential Legislators like myself that there seems to be a clear pattern of non-compliance with what I personally interpret as a requirement of their duties. This pattern is also why I'm posing this question so soon after the 48 hour period lapsed for my application, I have a reasonable suspicion that the unresponsiveness of the Committee in my case is part of a broader pattern of behavior and is unlikely to be remedied by simply waiting a little longer. Thus the only recourse I believe is available to me and to those in the same situation is to determine what other remedies are available under the laws of the Coalition.

Here are some additional examples other than my own of the Legislator Committee failing to confirm reception of an application within 48 hours. Given the sheer number of recent examples I was able to find there may be more, but I believe these should be sufficient to establish why I believe that the Legislator Committee has made a pattern of not confirming reception within 48 hours.
https://tspforums.xyz/thread-9279.html
https://tspforums.xyz/thread-9271.html
https://tspforums.xyz/thread-9266.html
https://tspforums.xyz/thread-9265.html
https://tspforums.xyz/thread-9291.html
https://tspforums.xyz/thread-9233.html
https://tspforums.xyz/thread-9219.html

If I were a Legislator the remedy I would seek for what I perceive to be gross negligence by the Legislator Committee would be to initiate a recall in the Assembly. However since the issue at hand is the Legislator Committee denying me membership in the Assembly that remedy is not available for me to access. The two questions I have for the court are a) Is "The Committee shall confirm the reception of an application within 48 hours" a binding requirement on the Legislator Committee or not? And b) What remedy can non-Legislators seek if their application receives no response?

The Charter states that: "(4) No member may be denied the right to vote or hold office, unless prohibited by constitutional law." It also states that "Members of the Executive are required to hold legislator status." which I interpret as meaning that denial of legislator status also constitutes denial of the right to hold office. To my knowledge I am not proscribed or a member of any proscribed regions or organizations, therefore it is my understanding that the pertinent constitutional law capable of prohibiting me from holding office would be the Legislator Committee Act.

The Legislator Committee Act states that:
"(1) Any member of the Coalition is eligible to attain legislator status if
a. the Legislator Committee does not opine that they are seeking membership in bad faith,
b. they have a nation in the South Pacific,
c. are not attempting to join with multiple nations or identities, and
d. are not considered by the Council on Regional Security to be a significant risk to regional security."

The Legislator Committee has not opined that I am seeking membership in bad faith to my knowledge, https://www.nationstates.net/nation=the_..._islanders is in the South Pacific, I am not aware of any belief that I am attempting to join with multiple nations or identities, and the Council on Regional Security has not expressed that I am a significant risk to regional security as far as I know.

Furthermore, the Legislator Committee act states that: "(5) Upon acceptance or denial of an application, the Legislator Committee shall post the result (including a sufficient reason in case of a denial) both in response to the application as well as per telegram to the applicant nation." My interpretation of the eligibility requirements in (1) and the "(including a sufficient reason in case of a denial)" phrase in (5) is that the Legislator Committee is required to have an actual reason to deny members of the Coalition legislator status, I was unable to find any other prohibitions against the right to vote and hold office in Constitutional Law. If this is the case then I would pose the additional questions of whether or not the Legislator Committee not responding to an application past the 48 hour and/or weeklong periods specified in the Legislator Committee Act effectively functions as a denial of that application, and if so does that denial violate the Charter rights of the Applicant provided they are eligible?

Question: Is "The Committee shall confirm the reception of an application within 48 hours" a binding requirement on the Legislator Committee or not?