Two GPSA court justices resigned Sunday night.
Chief Justice Josh Allison and Associate Justice Christopher Shank wrote an open letter of resignation and e-mailed it to members of the Graduate and Professional Student Association.
In the letter, Allison and Shank said they felt the court was fractured beyond repair and had become "a rubber stamp for unconstitutional abuses of procedure."
"I don't want to work with people that I don't respect, and I don't want to work with people that don't adhere to the rules, to be quite honest," Allison said in a phone interview.
Finance Chairman Isaac Padilla had called for Allison's resignation at Saturday's GPSA meeting.
Padilla said Allison has not behaved in accordance with the GPSA's constitution toward other council members.
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He said Allison should be removed from his position after writing a rude e-mail to Associate Justice Lisa Tsuchiya.
The e-mail said Tsuchiya's appointment to associate justice in January was unconstitutional, Padilla said.
It was also rudely worded and unbecoming of a justice, he said.
"He doesn't want her on the court, and he's trying to use his interpretation of the constitution to kick her off," Padilla said.
A copy of the e-mail was not available.
Allison declined to comment on the e-mail.
He said his resignation had nothing to do with Padilla's call for his removal.
The resignations of Allison and Shank come just weeks after former Council Chairwoman Melanie Armstrong resigned.
GPSA has been divided since the council voted to not have a recall for President Joseph Garcia.
In December, council members presented a recall petition signed by 284 graduate students. The petition said Garcia failed to complete his duties as president.
Some members say the council's vote was unconstitutional. Others say the vote fell within the constitution's bylaws.
Garcia said Allison's resignation came as a shock. The chief justice is a two-year appointment, and Allison's term would have ended in April, he said.
"What's surprising to me is basically that Josh's term was going to come to an end in April and he couldn't last for another month or two," he said. "And so, at this point, we kind of don't have a court, because there is the question of the constitutionality of Lisa Tsuchiya and Carolina Ramos' appointments."
He said the resignation of Allison and Shank was politically motivated.
"They weren't happy that I was re-elected to be president," he said.
The GPSA also elected a new council chairman Saturday.
Associate Justice Danny Hernandez and Projects Chairman Chris Ramirez applied for the position. Ramirez won by a vote of 15-5.
Ramirez said that as the new council chairman, he wants to put an end to the turmoil in the GPSA council and be an agent of change.
"The difficult thing is making sure we have a lot of different perspectives and viewpoints and make sure that we don't suppress anybody's viewpoint," he said. "But at the same time, can move forward and not get stuck in the politics and the differences."
