CZ:Moderator Group/Council decisions

Constable application of the rules

The Constabulary is the line organization entrusted to enforce Citizendium policy. Its decisions are authoritative and must be followed by all citizens. Failure to do so is an infraction of Citizendium rules of behavior, which may lead to disciplinary action, including banning. If a citizen believes a Constabulary decision violates Citizendium policy, he/she may appeal this decision to the Management Council. The Management Council will then consider the case and render a judgment. This judgment may confirm that the Constabulary decision implements current policy or indicate where it does not and direct the Constabulary to correct the problem. As a subcategory of the first outcome, the Management Council may decide the appeal is frivolous and quickly confirm the Constable decision without further comment.

When the Constabulary declines to take an action requested by a citizen, this decision may be appealed to the Management Council.

Appeals:

An appellant must have standing in the dispute. Standing means the decision under appeal directly involves him or her. An appeal by someone without standing will be dismissed.

Both the involved constable(s) and the appellant must provide their analysis why the decision under dispute either satisfies or contravenes CZ policy, the latter to include a constable decision based on non-existent policy. The Ombudsman will collect the relevant information for the appeal and present it on either the MC private communications board (for appeals the appellant or involved constables request remain private) or on a public board that only the MC and Ombudsman may modify.

The MC may request the Ombudsman to collect further information from the disputants and present it as part of the appeal process. The presentation of appeal evidence is a matter for the Ombudsman and not for the disputants. The Ombudsman is required to present all evidence provided to him by the disputants, but disputants are not parties to the discussions of this evidence by the Management Council. The Ombudsman may provide his views on the merits of the case, but does not have a vote on the disposition of the appeal.

Appeals will be based on the policy that existed at the time of the appealed decision. Appeal judgments by the Management Council will not include the provision of new policy. If an appeal identifies conditions requiring new policy, the Management Council will establish this policy in a separate administrative action.

The Management Council has complete flexibility in the judgments rendered for a particular appeal case. However, some common outcomes are: 1) denying the appeal without comment (for appeals the MC judges to be frivolous), 2) denying the appeal with comment, 3) confirming the appeal, and 4) acknowledging part of the appeal as meritorious. In the first two cases, the constable decision stands. In case 3 the decision is reversed. In case 4, the Management Council will specify how the decision should be modified to conform to CZ policy.