After reading in Wednesday's Daily Collegian that the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Senate rejected an associate justice nominee because of USG Supreme Court procedures ("USG Senate votes on two Court nominations," March 24), I was more than just angered at a body that is the poster child for ineffective and incompetent leadership. I was disgusted.

The basis for a nominee's confirmation is based on his or her credentials, not the procedures of a body they are being nominated to join. This is another example of Senate attempting to politicize the Court with students who are compliant to Senate's wishes instead of the rules. Something I find incredibly ironic, after all the complaints Senate has made about the Court's use of closed session for debate and voting (the results of which are published, with each justice's vote recorded in the decision), is that Senate has not recognized that the Court is not the only group on campus that goes into closed session for debate and voting. The University Park Allocation Committee (UPAC) goes into closed session for exactly those parts of its meeting, and I don't hear about senators drilling the UPAC liaison or the UPAC chair about the closed sessions -- and this is the students' money (as well as the taxpayers' money) that UPAC is allocating.

It is a historical precedent in this country that bodies in charge of funds must have their meetings open to the public. For some background, UPAC denied a policy proposal from the 32nd Congress that proposed it keep debate open (not voting, just debate) to the public. Apparently, these senators have such a big problem with Court's process but don't have a problem with UPAC's identical process, even when UPAC runs out of money halfway through the year. Perhaps senators should pick up their pitchforks and torches, and head down to the UPAC office instead, before they attempt to politicize the Court, which has legal precedents for debate and voting in closed session.