A&M student who lost election files court papers for possible lawsuit

[TexasTowelie]

A Texas A&M University student who was disqualified after winning the most votes for student body president has asked a court for permission to take sworn statements in preparation for a possible lawsuit on religious, due process and other grounds.

Lawyers for Robert McIntosh filed the petition Thursday in state district court in Brazos County seeking to depose Amy Loyd, Rachel Keathley and Aaron Mitchell. Loyd is assistant director of student activities at A&M, according to the school’s website. Keathley is a business honors senior and student elections commissioner, while Mitchell is listed as a law student.

A&M’s student-run judicial court disqualified McIntosh for failing to report a campaign expensive — namely, glow sticks used in a video. As a result, Bobby Brooks was declared the victor, making him the first openly gay student body president at the College Station campus.

Former Texas governor and current U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, an alumnus of A&M, has suggested that a diversity agenda was behind the disqualification — an allegation strenuously denied by the university.

Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/state--regional/student-who-lost-election-files-court-papers-for-possible-lawsuit/l2ADJKPmI3fJnsfi25BtgI/

[ExciteBike66]

1. Do lawsuits like this really belong in our court system?

Regardless of who won or lost? My understanding of the student government at my alma mater UConn was that they just made all sorts of proclamations and organized events for the students. It didn't seem like they had much power over actual policy at the school (beyond an advisory role with the school administration).

[TexasTowelie]

2. In this instance, it was the university that disqualified the top vote-getter in the student body

election. There was no way that the student could expect a fair appeal of the decision from administration. I don't know the details of how the structure works at Texas A&M, but I suspect that the student body president serves on the Board of Trustees for the university. Considering the various lawsuits that are filed about what occurs and what does not occur in schools, I would be surprised if a lawsuit did not occur.

[ExciteBike66]

4. According to the attached articles,

the Judicial Court is part of the student government, not the school admin. The Election Commissioner disqualified the student, and the Judicial Court upheld the disqualification. If the Election Commissioner is a student as well, I see no reason to have this fight in the state court system, since the school itself did not do anything.


http://sga.tamu.edu/files/Election%20Regulations%2008-09.pdf

Edit: I see now that Keathley (the Election Commissioner) is actually a student as well. Thus, I don't think the school took any action at all against the guy who was disqualified.

[TexasTowelie]

6. I needed to review the article again and you are correct.

I don't know if the university administration has any guidelines about overturning decisions made by student government officers, but I suspect that no matter what decision was made one party or the other would be dissatisfied and it could lead to an actual lawsuit. It will be interesting to see how this one turns out.

[shenmue]

3. Really, he's ticked off the winner was gay.

[Ilsa]

14. "Dude, you got beat by a gay guy," is probably

what the loser is hearing every day from his republican friends.

[bitterross]

5. Seriously? Sore Loser!

Good grief, this is a total waste of the court's time. I hope it gets kicked right away. I would imagine the court can refuse to hear this citing a couple of things:

1. Jurisdiction/Standing - Does the court have jurisdiction here to even hear the case and render a decision. Does the plaintiff have the standing to bring this before the court? This has to be a civil matter. What is the wrong here that needs to be corrected if the university followed its procedures?
2. Has the plaintiff exhausted all his procedural actions at the university.? Has the university's process been followed properly and in its entirety? If not, then go back and seek a remedy there first.

[redstatebluegirl]

7. Not a big surprise this is going on at A&M.

They have a long history of gay bashing, sexist and racist behavior on that campus. Google hatred A&M and see what pops up. This kid is trying to keep a gay person from leading A&M's student body.

[Rhiannon12866]

8. I thought Rick Perry was indicted on corruption

I remember posting the LBN thread. Trump should have run on his real slogan: "Making Bigotry Safe Again!"

[TexasTowelie]

9. The charges were dismissed in February 2016.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is nearly all Republican.

[Rhiannon12866]

10. Ah! Guess that didn't make the headlines

I'm still wondering why Tom DeLay is still around, too. I remember reading right here that he was going away..

[TexasTowelie]

11. More Republicans running the courts

that threw out the charges.

[Gothmog]

12. This will be fun to watch

[Ilsa]

13. Thanks for the heads-up, TxT!

Perry is pissed that the son of a big republican donor didn't win his first contest.

I'm also confused about this religious grounds part of the suit.

I would think Perry has his plate full trying to learn about the DOE, which he can't shut down as easily as 45 is doing the State Dept and EPA.

[TexasTowelie]

15. You're welcome.

This has developed into a bit of a soap opera. I wonder what the Friday cliffhanger will be going into the weekend? Was Perry (with all of the allegations that he was gay) spurned by the young gay student that won the election? Will Perry succumb to "the gay agenda"? Will Johnny Football return to campus to negotiate a peace settlement between the feuding factions?

Stayed tuned folks!

[TexasTowelie]

16. Here is what it said in The Battalion:

&quot McIntosh) desires to investigate whether the true reasons for such disqualification and establish that those reasons are based on the fact that he is a heterosexual, white, Christian male," the petition, which can be read in its entirety below, states.

According to the press release, McIntosh believes he was disqualified for those reasons and as such his religious rights have been violated.

"The Election Commissioner, and another student, would know of these motivations to deprive Mr. McIntosh of the freedom exercise of his religion under both the Texas and Federal versions of the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act," the press release read. "West further stated that his client wants to gather information to investigate claims of State and Federal Due Process violations and deprivations of (McIntosh's) Civil Rights."

http://www.thebatt.com/news/mcintosh-hires-attorney-files-petition-to-depose-individuals/article_1de7da10-1044-11e7-bde9-0f1c65100a01.html

ETA: The comments section is also interesting.