[Lnc-business] The Judicial Committee decision and how it effects the Libertarian National Committee

[Alicia Mattson]

The Chair's email message also included the following:

"The Libertarian Party of Oregon has nominated and run many Libertarian
candidates for public office in the last four years, including placing Gary
Johnson and Jim Gray on the ballot in 2012 as the Presidential and Vice
Presidential nominees, as required by the affiliation agreement between the
Libertarian National Committee and the Libertarian Party of Oregon."

Below my signature is a copy of an email that the Wagner/Hedbor group sent
12 days ago to our Chair and to the StateChairs email list, in which they
declare they do not consider themselves bound to honor the national
convention's presidential ticket.  I'm not on that list, but the message
was eventually forwarded to me.

To put this in perspective, they threatened the same thing in 2012 but then
did put our nominee on the ballot.  Since the Chair mentioned it, I just
want to note that they have gone out of their way to state that they do not
feel obligated to place our nominees on the ballot in Oregon.

-Alicia



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Lars Hedbor <lhedbor at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 3, 2015 at 12:18 AM
Subject: [Statechairs] Resolution Adopted at 2 September 2015 Libertarian
Party of Oregon board of directors meeting
To: Nicholas Sarwark <chair at lp.org>, State Chairs Group <
statechairs at hq.lp.org>
Cc: "lpo-state-committee at googlegroups.com" <
lpo-state-committee at googlegroups.com>


Forwarded for your information, a resolution adopted by a vote of 7-0, with
2 absent:

"Be it resolved that the Libertarian Party of Oregon shall boycott the
Orlando 2016 National Convention; that we shall not be bound by the
Convention's Presidential nomination; that if any delegation presents
itself as the Oregon delegation, they shall be disclaimed."

- Lars D. H. Hedbor,
  Chair, Libertarian Party of Oregon





On Tue, Sep 15, 2015 at 8:08 AM, Nicholas Sarwark <chair at lp.org> wrote:

> All,
>
> I assume that you all have had a chance to read the document forwarded
> to this list by the Secretary and myself.
>
> There are a number of procedural defects in how the Judicial Committee
> came to meet, whether notice was proper, whether the issue they took
> up was actually authorized by the Bylaws, whether the explicit
> enumeration of causes in the Bylaws precludes rescinding a prior
> decision four years after the fact, etc.  Any one or more of those
> would make the decision we received invalid.  If anyone would like to
> discuss the specifics of those issues, I'm happy to do so.
>
> However, I think it's more productive to proceed with the decision we
> received and leave what to do about the process that allowed it to
> occur to the delegates in convention in Orlando in 2016.
>
> By a vote of 4-2, the current Judicial Committee decided to rescind
> the decision of the prior Judicial Committee in Wagner v. LNC.  Wagner
> v. LNC reversed decisions of the Executive Committee of the LNC that
> constructively disaffiliated the Libertarian Party of Oregon without
> the appropriate vote of the full LNC by recognizing officers and
> bylaws different from those recognized under state law as the officers
> of the Libertarian Party of Oregon, which is organized as a political
> party under the laws of the state of Oregon.
>
> For reference, the three Executive Committee motions originally adopted
> are:
> "--------------------------Motion 1------------------------
> Based upon the available evidence, the Executive Committee of the
> Libertarian National Committee finds that the Bylaws of the
> Libertarian Party of Oregon (as amended March 14-15, 2009) are the
> Bylaws of the Libertarian Party of Oregon, and that these bylaws have
> been in effect since March 15, 2009.  (This motion was adopted by a
> vote of 6-1.)
> --------------------------Motion 2------------------------
> Based upon the available evidence, the Executive Committee of the
> Libertarian National Committee recognizes as the officers of the
> Libertarian Party of Oregon those people elected by the State
> Committee during its meeting on May 21, 2011. They are:
> Chair:  Tim Reeves
> Vice chair:  Eric B. Saub
> Secretary:  Carla J. Pealer
> Treasurer:  Gregory Burnett
> (This motion was adopted by a vote of 6-1.)
> --------------------------Motion 3------------------------
> The Executive Committee of the Libertarian National Committee urges
> the members of the Libertarian Party of Oregon to work together to
> resolve their disagreements. (This motion was adopted by a vote of
> 7-0.)"
>
> It is important to understand what a motion to rescind can and cannot
> do to understand the effect of the Judicial Committee ruling.  Under
> Robert's, motions to rescind cannot undo what has been done.  If a
> body votes to paint a building green, then paints the building green,
> a subsequent motion to rescind the decision to paint the building
> green does not unpaint the building, nor does it repaint the building
> a different color.  New action by the body is required to repaint the
> building.
>
> Accordingly, rescinding the decision that reversed the motions of the
> Executive Committee listed above has the effect of saying that the
> current Judicial Committee disagrees with the decision of the prior
> Judicial Committee.  It also reinstates the sense of the Executive
> Committee in 2011 that "based on the available evidence" a certain
> group of people and a certain set of bylaws were the correct ones for
> the Libertarian Party of Oregon.
>
> However, in the subsequent four years, perhaps in the spirit of
> "work[ing] together to resolve their disagreements," there has been
> extensive litigation in Oregon state courts over who controls the
> Libertarian Party of Oregon, a political party organized and governed
> by Oregon state law.  The result of that litigation has been that the
> Libertarian Party of Oregon is presently chaired by Lars Hedbor.  The
> rival group, presently chaired by Ian Epstein, has been ordered to act
> as a Political Action Committee, as there may not be more than one
> political party referred to as the "Libertarian Party of Oregon."
> There is an appeal pending, but the decision of the lower court was
> not stayed on appeal, so the lower court decision stands.
>
> The Libertarian Party of Oregon has nominated and run many Libertarian
> candidates for public office in the last four years, including placing
> Gary Johnson and Jim Gray on the ballot in 2012 as the Presidential
> and Vice Presidential nominees, as required by the affiliation
> agreement between the Libertarian National Committee and the
> Libertarian Party of Oregon.
>
> The LNC affiliates with state Libertarian parties.  Some of those
> parties are allowed or required to organize under state laws, some are
> not.  In Oregon, the LNC is affiliated with the Libertarian Party of
> Oregon, an Oregon political party.
>
> If the members of the Libertarian National Committee feel that the
> Oregon political party, the Libertarian Party of Oregon, should no
> longer be our affiliate in the state of Oregon, for whatever reason, a
> motion to disaffiliate that political party as our state affiliate is
> in order.  Until such time as such a motion is moved and passes, it is
> my intent as Chair of the Libertarian National Committee to maintain
> the affiliate agreement with the Oregon political party, the
> Libertarian Party of Oregon.  This would not and will not change
> should future litigation change who is in control of that political
> party.
>
> Yours in liberty,
>
> Nick
>
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