The ASWSU Judicial Board ruled at the Senate meeting Wednesday that the Anders-Amos campaign did not violate election bylaws when presidential candidate Zachary Anders tweeted what Jordan Frost called defamatory statements.

This was the second of two rulings on allegations filed against the Ander-Amos campaign.

The complaint alleged that Anders was guilty of violating verbal rules that Election Board Chair Kourtni Jefson stated at the declaration of candidacy meeting, along with the WSU Codes of Conduct and Washington state defamation laws.

Frost said this was specifically in violation of ASWSU bylaw 610.03, which states that, “All candidates and sponsors of ballot issues shall not break any University, local, state, or federal laws, ordinances, rules or regulations while campaigning.”

The Judicial Board stated that it could not find the Anders-Amos campaign in violation of this bylaw because “at the time of the hearing, no charges of libel had been brought against the Anders-Amos campaign by either the University Student Conduct Office or the Whitman County Prosecutors Office.”

The board said it could only find someone in violation of this bylaw if they were found guilty by a higher court. The board said university, state and federal laws were outside its jurisdiction.

This was the same bylaw the Anders-Amos campaign alleged the Frost-Kalt campaign violated in an allegation they filed on Friday.

Anders said earlier in the semester he had wanted to use a drone in his own campaign video but found out this was in violation of FAA regulations.

WSU Police Chief Bill Gardner stated in January that drones are “prohibited under FAA regulations because the campus lies within a five-mile radius of the police and the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport.”

As stated by the Anders-Amos campaign, this would mean the Frost-Kalt campaign had violated state law when they used a drone to film part of their campaign video on campus. The defamation or libel case is considered much harder to prove in a court of law.

The Judicial Board’s decision on this case could mean that unless criminal or student conduct charges are filed against the Frost-Kalt campaign and they are found guilty, they will not be found in violation of bylaw 610.03.