Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 02:40:07 -0000 From: pgammill@home.com Subject: [lpaz-discuss] The Appeal To: lpaz-discuss@yahoogroups.com Reply-To: lpaz-discuss@yahoogroups.com
Well, I attended the oral arguments made in the Arizona Court of Appeals, Dist. 1, on Wed. 3-7-01 at 2:15pm. Mr. John Buttrick and Mr. Tom Rawls represented the ALP (and the Democrat and Republican Party's) position that the internal workings of a political party (as a private institution) were none of the state's business. Mr. David Hardy represented ALP, Inc. in its position that the state has compelling reasons to mandatorily establish the precinct committee system that ultimately elects the Party's positions of State Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary. [Never mind that this whole PC system was set up nationwide to hamper the gains being made in the 30's by the American Communist Party (in its various apparitions).] 19 people were in the audience, two on Mr. Hardy's side (Mr. Schmerl and Mr. Kahn (I think?)), the rest backed the various parties above (Good to see Liz, Mike Ross, Paul Schable, and Tim I apologize if I left anyone out).
It is truly amazing to watch "libertarians" argue FOR mandatory state control of a private organization's organizational structure! What is even more amazing is when they are the ONLY party arguing for this control. Yes, had the Inc. not been involved, the ALP, Republican and Democratic Party's would have been in Judge Meyer's court unopposed, and the mandatary precinct ommittee system would be history. Sad, but just one example of how much destruction to freedom this fissure has created the last 6 years. And how badly set back or set upon the ALP is.
It is virtually impossible to glean anything from the questions asked by the judges (tribuneral). I will say this, they scheduled 90 minutes for the arguments, which is extraordinarily generous. All three payed very close attention throughout, and asked good questions of both sides. And they made sure both sides were finished before adjourning we both got a fair hearing. I believe they are serious about considering the matters raised, but I also suspect in the end they will choose not to open a can of worms and instead let Judge Myer's ruling stand (who did his homework, before he ruled).
While I agree with Judge Myer's that the State is not unreasonable to demand all recognized political party's create a position called the State Chairman, et cetera, that will be the person to exclusively iteract with the Secretary of State and the County Recorder's offices. I disagree that the mechanism of HAVING to elect precinct committeemen to do it doesn't impose an undue burden (It is an anathema to libertarian philosophy, and it was intended at its formation to hinder the Communist Party.). We have always let our membership come to an open convention and openly elect our leadership. This multilayer precinct committeeman system, where only they get to vote, smacks of elitism ("if your not PC baby, you're not anything").
The justices did take an interest that neither the Sec. of State, nor the Attorney General, wanted to participate in this appellate process. That the state appeared to not consider IT had a compelling interest in the outcome. But I don't know how much that will influence their reasoning.
Mr. Rawls was certainly exciting. He got the judges attention (and perhaps ire) by telling them they and the state had NO business telling the ALP how they determined their internal oranizing structure. An interesting tactic. A very libertarian tactic. They were definitely not use to that in front of them. But at least it was made unambiguously and passionately clear in both the beginning and summation of Mr. Rawls' presentations how we felt. The arguments only lasted about 45 minutes.
After the hearing, while we were outside discussing our impressions and thanking John and Tom for their work on our behalf, Mr. Peter Schmerl walked up to ask Liz if she still had not set a firm date for the convention. :-) I look forward to seeing him at the convention. Hope he brings his friends. He won't be having such a good time with Robert's Rules this time. We will be prepared. Liz will have a good time.
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