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**Farengeto** · 07-12-2015, 10:59 PM

Honourable Justices,

According to the Code of Law special elections occur as follows:

Quote:2. Vacancies in office occur when the office holder resigns, is recalled, or no longer holds citizenship. In the event of a vacancy in office a special election will begin within 72 hours of the office becoming vacant, unless the vacancy occurs in the month prior to the start of the term for the position in question; in this case the Cabinet will appoint a Citizen to fill the vacated position for the remainder of the term.

For the purposes of this article, when does "in the month prior" refer to, particularly in the context of judicial special elections?

TAC Saxton · 07-13-2015, 11:39 AM

The Court will hear this Legal Question and has been assigned as HCLQ1513.

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***sandaoguo*** · 07-13-2015, 05:03 PM

I submit my short amicus brief:

This is a simple question that should not take the High Court more than a day to decide. If the Assembly intended to limit the Cabinet's appointment powers to cases only where a vacancy occurs 30-days or more before the start of the next term, the law would say that. The Assembly would not abuse the English language.

The clause is clear. It does not say "unless the vacancy occurs a month prior to the start of the term." It says "unless the vacancy occurs in the month prior to the start of the term." In the English language, "in the" indicates that we are talking about any point in time that occurs in the month prior to the start of the term. Indeed, I had to use the exact phraseology because I cannot think of any other way to convey the concept in English. The clause means that any vacancy that occurs in July triggers the Cabinet's appointment powers, because the next term is in August. July is the month prior to August. Any date in July counts as being "in the month prior" to August.

TAC Saxton · 07-17-2015, 04:23 PM

[Image: HCSeal.png]

[HCLQ1513]

July 17th, 2015

Petitioner

Farengeto

Presiding Justices

Apad, TAC and Hopolis (Acting Justice)

Non-Presiding Justice
N/A

Question: when does "in the month prior" refer to, particularly in the context of judicial special elections?

Majority Opinion

Apad, TAC and Hopolis (Acting Justice)

Quote:2. Vacancies in office occur when the office holder resigns, is recalled, or no longer holds citizenship. In the event of a vacancy in office a special election will begin within 72 hours of the office becoming vacant, unless the vacancy occurs in the month prior to the start of the term for the position in question; in this case the Cabinet will appoint a Citizen to fill the vacated position for the remainder of the term.

The Court has unanimously agreed that "in the month prior" to the start of the term for the position in question; does not refer to "thirty days prior" to the start of a term, instead it refers to any point in the month prior to the start of a term.

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**Farengeto** · 07-17-2015, 05:16 PM

With all due respect I'm still not sure which way the court ruled on this. Could it please clarify.

TAC Saxton · 07-17-2015, 05:42 PM

Basically, what GR has been saying. The "thirty days" interpretation is wrong and the Cabinet can appoint a citizen to fill in the remaining term for Justice (the one we just temporarily appointed Hopolis to for this case because Tomb lost his citizenship)

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