Jonathan LeMaster-Smith

The Judicial Council is our high court, and they will meet throughout the General Conference. I will work to try to go over the decisions and any implications that may come from them.

This first set comes from the April 22nd meeting.

Decision 1492 – lets us know that Annual Conferences and Bishops cannot make decisions of law (or anything else for that matter) based on hypothetical or unsubstantiated claims. That is, a question was asked whether the presentation of evidence that the annual conference unlawfully ratified a disafillation, would nullify the decision. The bishop said, we can’t deal in hypotheticals or in questions without evidence. The judicial council affirms this. But I think we’ve already consistently affirmed this.

Memorandum 1493 – parliamentary questions are not under the purview of the Judicial Council. Essentially, someone asked whether an issue regarding a vote was valid, and requested a rule of law, and the bishop based her decision on Robert’s Rules, and the Judicial Council said, “we don’t do that.”

Decision 1494 – First, several questions were raised improperly as decisions of law instead of declaratory decisions. Second, a bishop, in decision of law, cannot raise concerns about the state or nature of the discipline, judicial matters, or offer any legislative ideas, as this is the role of the General Conference and Judicial Council. (A separate post coming on this later)

Memorandum 1495 – The Council of Bishops asks questions of the terms of Judicial Council members and whether General Conference can change that. The Judicial Council essentially says “We can’t decide that” because ¶ 55 says General Conference decides that.

Decision 1496 – Members of boards and agencies elected to serve in 2016 have served eight years total, but have only been elected to one four year term. The question is whether they are done or whether they may be elected for another four year term. The Judicial Council decided that this has been one term, and that we are currently meeting in the 2020 General Conference, so they may be elected again. One dissenting opinions notes that this should be similar to Memorandum 1495, as ¶ 16 reserves the right for General Conference to decided on matters of membership to General Agencies.

My thoughts on these decisions: We’re just cleaning up and clarifying roles in most of these. It gives us clarity for decision making in the future