Dear Editor,

The ASSU Constitutional Council is one of those rare byproducts of our strange local democracy. Americans don’t forget that the U.S. Supreme Court exists, but in a university with high turnover and a booming student-government bureaucracy, it’s not unbelievable that the average Stanford student will have no clue what the Constitutional Council is, let alone who’s on it. The judicial body of the ASSU has a considerable influence: the right to interpret the ASSU constitution. Yet a case almost never arrives to the council’s docket. A glance at its recent history shows that before the council’s membership was refreshed last spring, not a single case had been heard in years.

A quiet past, or even a drawn-out nominations process, shouldn’t—and won’t—impact the legitimacy of the Constitutional Council. What this recent attention might do is ignite interest in what is probably the single most important body in an organization marked by a divided and political Senate. Our work won’t change: we will remain as committed as ever to maintaining a fair, transparent mechanism for interpretation of the constitution and other foundational ASSU texts. But perhaps what we do will matter more to the Stanford community. For that, we should all be thankful.

Matthew “Mateo” Willmott ’11

Constitutional Council Member