The Judicial Board is the judicial branch of the UCLA Undergraduate Student Association. It is a

reactionary institution which can only exercise its case-hearing powers following a formal request via a

petition to hear a case. It serves in a similar capacity to the United States Supreme Court. Only

undergraduate students at UCLA may interact with the Judicial Board in any capacity.

Per the Undergraduate Student Constitution:

1. The Judicial Board shall rule upon the Constitutionality of legislation and official actions of elected or appointed officials at the request of the Council or any other members of the Association.

2. The Judicial Board shall resolve any disputes related to the implementation and enforcement of the guiding documents of the Association.

3. The Judicial Board may also question, comment, or rule upon other matters at the request of the Council or any member of the Association.

4. The Judicial Board shall serve as a board of appeals to decisions of the Elections Board.

5. The Judicial Board shall have other powers and responsibilities as may be delegated to it by the Chancellor of the University of California Los Angeles.

The most common provisions typically involve provisions 1 and 4, though provisions 2 and 3 indicate that the Judicial Board can take on a large number of cases involving students who are members of the Association. If you pay undergraduate student fees, you are a member of the Association. That means every undergraduate student at UCLA is eligible to interact with the Board.

Many of the cases that the Judicial Board hears involve appeals to infractions of the Elections Code.

The Judicial Board also typically hears cases regarding the official actions of Councilmembers.

The Judicial Board operates on a petition basis. To submit a case for hearing, you must use the petition document to outline where the Board has jurisdiction, a summary of what violation you believe to have occurred, the consequences of that violation, and your proposed remedy.

It is important to ensure that you have exercised every reasonable remedy before submitting a case to the Judicial Board. Some of these remedies may require appealing to Council in the case of funding or discrimination cases.

If you believe that you have a case with merits, you can access the Petition documents on the Judicial Board homepage. You should submit a Petition for Consideration if you believe your case has ramifications and seek a remedy. You should submit a Petition for Consideration for Non-Adversarial Cases if you would like the Judicial Board to only comment on a matter.

You can also access the Petition Filing Guide and walk-through video on the homepage. It is important to correctly identify yourself and the Respondent. You should also identify what gives the Judicial Board the jurisdiction to hear your case, which sections of the guiding documents were violated, the consequences of these actions, and (if applicable) the remedy being sought.

If you would clerical assistance in filling out your petition, you may reach out to the Judicial Board by

email jboard@usac.ucla.edu or by attending an office-hour (virtual or in-person).

First, the Petition must be approved by three (3) members of the Judicial Board.

If your case is related to Elections, it may be accelerated and can be heard and decided as soon as the same day.

If your case is not related to Elections, the case will follow the Official Rules of the Judicial Board.

After a petition is granted, a Preliminary Hearing will be held within 5 business days. Two business days later, witness lists are due. One business week later, the Court of Hearing will be conducted; the Board often comes to a final deliberation here. Within two business weeks of the Court of Hearing, a final opinion will be published.

Yes, you can appeal the petition, only if new evidence has been discovered that was not presented in the original petition. The new evidence must relate to jurisdiction, standing, timeliness, justiciability, or implications and may not relate to the merits of the case.

Yes, but only after the USA/BOD funding appeal has first been appealed to the Council, filed simultaneously with the funding committee chair, the USAC President, and the Internal Vice President within two weeks of the funding decision. Both the Council and the Judicial Board can only hear cases that point to clear violations of a rule:

1. lack of a reasonable opportunity to appear before the funding committee

2. a procedural error that substantially disadvantaged the proposal, or

3. unfair or inconsistent treatment by the committee

The most important components of a petition are that the Judicial Board has the jurisdiction to rule on the case and that there is merit to an alleged violation of the guiding documents. This means that a specific action has to have occurred and a specific provision or bylaw concerning that action from the guiding documents must be enumerated in your petition. Cases also should provide a description of any alleged injuries and proposed remedies.

Petitions must enumerate a specific clause in the governing documents in order for them to have merit. They also have to describe actions which could be construed as a violation of the enumerated action.

Petitions must make a specific claim of where the Judicial Board has jurisdiction for the case to be considered. Petitions must exhaust all previous appeal pipelines beforehand. In recent years, many petitions have been denied during elections because candidates wishing to appeal sanctions did not demonstrate they acted contrary to the alleged action initiating the sanction, nor enumerated a clause that the Elections Board could have violated.

A Preliminary Hearing is a private hearing held by the Judicial Board with the Petitioner and Respondent to establish the facts of a case. Admission of a fact in this hearing is not admission of guilt. Cases may be withdrawn or settled during this time.

No! Although you have the option to represent yourself, you can also appoint another undergraduate student (member of the Association) to represent your case to the Judicial Board in your petition.

Most cases will go into a private preliminary hearing where the facts of the case are established. Then, a public hearing will be held. There will be 5 minutes allocated to each opening statement, then witness direct examination and cross examination, and then 10 minutes allocated to each closing statement. The time length for witness examination, as well as permission for re-direct and re-cross, is at the discretion of the Chief Justice, who may also ask questions to the witnesses for clarifying purposes only.

Private meetings of the Judicial Board are never recorded. Public hearings, known better as the Court of Hearing, may be recorded by the Judicial Board and published to the public. The Media may also record Court transcripts with an approval of 2⁄3 of the Judicial Board members.

The Judicial Board website retains all cases held from 2010 onwards, and some cases from 2007. It is in the process of being updated with more historic petitions. Please view “Terms” on our website.

Meetings of the Judicial Board, aside from public Courts of Hearing, are private. However, the Board publicly presents quarterly on its work to the Council, and its timesheets are public information that can be accessed at these meetings. The Board also hosts a number of events interacting with the public and is open for inquiries through its email and Instagram.

The Judicial Board will act on any petition Monday through Friday, weeks one through nine of the Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters, from 9am to 9pm PST. Petitions can be submitted at any time.

Please refer to the Judicial Board Instagram, as they change frequently based on Justice availability. Justices can answer general questions about the Board, but they will not provide any help in the petition drafting process, nor in the process for hearing a case.

Yes! Throughout the year, events will be announced on our Instagram. We also do targeted outreach to certain campus groups. If you would like JBoard to present to your organization on our work, please contact us at jboard@usac.ucla.edu.