“Hey John, I’ll buy the first round of beers if you fold,” former Senator Zack Spilman said to Student Government Association President John Sheehan last night.

Jokes surrounding grabbing beers were only some of the topics discussed at the first Judiciary Hearing of the semester.

Members of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and members of the SGA convened last night to debate and pinpoint exactly what illegalities occurred during Senate elections this fall.

Steve Castillo and Steve Morin filed the case against Sheehan, Speaker Aaron Saunders, Secretary of Finance Gabriel Tavares and Chancellor of Elections Sam Blasiak on Oct. 11 under the grounds of illegal elections activity, which in turn resulted in an unconstitutional Senate.

The case submitted was a direct photocopy of a case presented last year charging former Speaker Jim Eltringham with similar charges. The charges claim that due to a lack of the required one elections commissioner per polling station, the elections were unconstitutional. As a result, last year’s Senate was dismissed on the grounds of illegal and unconstitutional acts.

Under the petitioner’s council were former Senate members Spilman, Jeff Bazydlo, and Pat DeCourcy. The petitioners brought forth many complaints to the judiciary; however the lack of official elections commissioners and wording of referendum question three were their main cause for complaint.

The case began with questions, but resulted in much confusion as the petitioners and defendants both tried to make sense of one another. The meeting began with positive as well as negative remarks on both sides.As the trial pressed on, the call for factual information became a reoccurring question and debate between members of the judiciary and the petitioners.

The petitioners stressed the fact that the elections were systematically unjust for blatantly violating the Constitution and its By-Laws.

“We don’t want the Senate thrown out; what we want is a functionally stable SGA,” Spilman said. “But right now the SGA is completely disenfranchised.”

The defendants disagreed, claiming that the SGA had done the best that they could under the circumstances. Sheehan further explained that under the SGA By-Laws, because the Senate was under the Coordinating Council, it was not allowed to appoint elections commissioners prior to Elections Day.

“If the goal before us is not to toss the Senate elections, then my question for you is ‘why are we here?'” Sheehan asked. “Why is this something that had to be taken to the judiciary, rather than been taken care of the legislature?”

After further discussion and three five-minute recesses called by the judiciary in order to convene for council, the meeting pressed to call a witness. The petitioners called Blasiak to the stand asking questions regarding the referendum question, as well as his choice to appoint assistants to the tables, rather than actual elections commissioners.

“I ran the elections to the best of my ability,” Blasiak said.

In regards to the questioning surrounding the wording of referendum question number three on the ballot, Blasiak stated that under the constitution, it was his right to decide if it was fit to be on the ballot.

“In a elections commissioners meeting with quorum, we voted and agreed that question three would be placed on the ballot,” Blasiak said.

The case ended with closing statements in which Sheehan and Tavares expressed that the elections were run as efficiently as possible and that it was harmless error.

“I think it was all pretty much garbage,” DeCourcy said. “I’m just glad that we got [Blasiak] to admit that he did in fact violate the Constitution, and we’ll see from here.”

Sheehan had a different response by stating that the hearing speaks for itself.

“They failed to make a valid argument, and we’ve already wasted our time here when we could have dealt with the matter at hand under different circumstances,” Sheehan said.

Members of the Judiciary will be meeting to decide on a final decision regarding the case; however, the date of when it will be released is unknown at this time. Senate will resume as scheduled in the Campus Center at 7:15 p.m. tonight.