This year, the Student Bar Association (SBA) is running contested elections for the President, Vice President, and 3L/2L Senator positions. While uncontested, the platform for the candidate for the University Judiciary Committee Law Representative is featured below, and voting will be open from Wednesday, March 17 until Friday, March 19. We encourage you to learn more about the debate and the candidates, as well as exercise your right to vote for your upcoming SBA representatives!
This statement is presented unedited so that you may consider the candidates based on their own work.
Dear UVA Law classmates:
I submit I am qualified to serve as one of your two University Judiciary Committee ("UJC") Law Representatives for four reasons.
First, because I have responsibly served on university disciplinary boards before. I was appointed by my college's administration to serve as a student representative on the college's Sexual Misconduct Board. In this role, I served on three-person panels that adjudicated student Title IX claims, ranging from sexual harassment to rape.
Second, because my principal legal interest is in the concept of a "fair trial"; specifically, how procedural rules protect this outcome. UJC Representatives (a.k.a. judges) must appreciate this area of the law because, as a public university, U.S. constitutional protections apply. In particular, the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause. Under U.S. Supreme Court precedent, the clause ostensibly protects against the "unfair or mistaken findings of misconduct and arbitrary exclusion from school." Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565 (1975). In the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, due process means "the opportunity to be heard at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner." Tigrett v. Rector and Visitors of University of Virginia, 290 F.3d 620, 630 (4th Cir. 2002) (quoting Richardson v. Eastover, 922 F.2d 1152, 1160 (4th Cir. 1991)). In short, my interest in due process will make me a consistent voice for enforcing strict procedural regularity on UJC.
Third, this summer I will be interning in chambers for a federal district court judge, who is also a former federal prosecutor. I expect that, in this experience, I will learn how to better balance the interests of the accused against the accuser. This, I trust, will serve me well as a judge on UJC.
And fourth, I have been endorsed by The Cavalier Daily, the University's student newspaper.
I hope to earn your vote.
Adam Younger
Adam Younger ‘23