Great Alemonia v. Aileram

The Court would like to begin by expressing, in the strongest terms possible, extreme disappointment with the way the preceding trial was handled. Defense's sole action was to attempt to have the case dismissed, and the plaintiff relied entirely on the original complaint without further explication. The Court can only conclude that neither party was particularly interested in the outcome or the alleged infraction that supposedly took place. Frankly, neither is this Court.

The Minister of Domestic Affairs is charged with the duty to "Maintain and enforce regional standards of civility" (Constitution, Article 5, Section 3). In the course of these duties, Minister Aileram punished the defendant through use of "time out," a temporary suspension of posting rights in the Discord server. Moderation requires judgment calls, and these calls will not always be agreeable to everyone, much less the people receiving punishment when such calls are made. A line is crossed when moderation is used as a tool to enforce grudges or biases on the part of the official. Such abusive use of power could constitute as malfeasance, as the plaintiff opined during his complaint. This venue, however, is a civil one. The question before this Court is whether plaintiff's civil rights were violated. The Court does not agree that this is what transpired.

Plaintiff cites a single piece of evidence purporting to demonstrate bias on the part of the minister, as the minister did not take action against the individual in question on the same day that action was taken against the plaintiff. The plaintiff claims the cited evidence demonstrated he was targeted by the individual, as he considers himself a member of the class the individual was insulting, and the minister deliberately looked the other way and let it happen because of a shared ideology. The Court notes that the plaintiff was not specifically targeted by this remark, whereas the language that led to the plaintiff's punishment was targeting the individual to which it was directed. A reasonable observer can draw the same distinction the minister appears to have made. The fact that political ideology was subject matter contained in the comments does not automatically mean that acting on those remarks or not constitutes political bias on the part of the minister. To demonstrate that, the plaintiff would not just have to show a double standard was employed, but that the motivation fr that double standard was ideological. This is a high bar to clear, and the evidence presented does not come close to clearing it. Perhaps most significantly, the plaintiff acknowledges that the defendant recognized an error in his judgment. The complaint does not address the fact that the original punishment was suspended prematurely following the discussion between the plaintiff and the defendant. It is the Court's opinion that this constitutes appropriate remedy for the situation.

The Court's civil trial procedure is designed to address wrongs that fall outside our region's legal code, and which are not the result of criminal offenses, though undoubtedly civil grievances can and do result from criminal offenses whether they are prosecuted or not. Moderation is common and constantly a matter of judgment. The Court cannot be the arbiter of every single act of moderation made by government officials, especially with such limited evidence. If plaintiff had demonstrated a pattern of behavior, and a clear demonstration of bias, rather than two screenshots from the same day, perhaps a stronger case could have been made. Civil rights can be unduly constrained, even accidentally, by acts of government, and that is a serious thing that warrants this Court's attention. For that reason, the Court cannot take such a complaint lightly, even if the parties in this trial do. There must be substance to such a complaint, and there isn't enough in this case.

IT IS HELD that Minister Aileram's actions were appropriate and did not violate plaintiff's civil rights.

This concludes the Court's business in this case.