Oregon Daily Emerald
Wednesday, March 2, 2005
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■ Guest commentary
Give me liberty or my money back
“The core power of a legislator act
ing within the legislature’s subject
matter jurisdiction is to make a dis
cretionary decision on what the law
should be; that is why a legislator
may not be legally ordered to exercise
discretion in a particular way without
damaging the legislative power as
such.” — U.S. Supreme Court Justice
David Souter (Printz v. United States,
521 U.S. 898 (1997))
The various constituencies were so
busy fulfilling their pundit-decreed
roles in the sandbox fight over the
Oregon Commentator that they all
missed what actually matters. The
central issue is not what the Com
mentator has printed, whose buttons
it has pushed in muckraking fashion
or its inherent right to print what it
wants; rather, it is whether student
legislators possess a constitutional
right to speak freely, like any other
legislators in the United States, and to
legislate the student incidental fee,
even to defund a group.
In a real legislative process, nobody
is entitled to anything more than a
chance to present his or her request.
However, more critical is whether
those who oversee the University sand
box can refrain from interfering with
the democratic process among Univer
sity students, despite the bureaucracy’s
overarching want to maintain another
revenue stream for student services
that the fee represents, which effective
ly relieves fiscal pressure from the bu
reaucracy’s own budgets.
As you may know, the ASUO Consti
tutional Court has chosen to disenfran
chise three University student legisla
tors indefinitely for doing nothing more
than expressing their opinions on a leg
islative question in a Programs Finance
Committee legislative hearing. I have
wondered over the past few weeks
what on earth could prompt fellow
University students to accept the judi
cial gagging of a fellow student — even
one with legislative rights. Sadly, many
seem content that a court can do this
sort of thing to ensure that “viewpoint
neutrality” is a reality of political life at
Oregon. Never mind this was how na
tions such as East Germany used to sti
fle political criticism and freedom. And,
of course, never mind that no court can
ever exercise this jurisdiction over the
legislative process in America, regard
less of governmental level.
What concerns me is not that a
piece of paper says or does not say
something or that some kangaroo
court thinks it gets to interpret it so as
to assign itself immutable power to
disenfranchise legislators. This is all,
naturally, an exercise in American
students learning how the American
system works. But therein lies the
worrisome problem that has prompt
ed me to comment. Somebody has
erroneously taught students that
courts may order legislators on how a
legislative vote shall be cast and
which words surrounding it are con
stitutionally acceptable. This does
violence to our society’s understand
ing of liberty’s dependence on the
principle of separation of powers.
In America, legislative power carries
with it legislative immunity from suit,
derived from nothing less than the U.S.
Constitution, Article I, Section 6 and
applied through common law to the
states and their subordinates, such as
public universities. Would you find it
outrageous to find one morning that
Chief Justice William Rehnquist had
ordered Sen. Edward Kennedy’s votes
no longer counted, because he was not
“viewpoint neutral” when denouncing
Secretary of Defense Donald Rums
feld’s mission in a legislative hearing
before voting against his request?
To rectify this severe departure from
American practice of government, I
have introduced two ASUO resolutions
to restore full voting rights to these stu
dent legislators. To do anything less
cheats University students of their ed
ucation in American government and
their inalienable rights. Please contact
your ASUO senator to urge support for
these resolutions.
Michael Watson is ASUO
Academic Senator
INBOX
Marijuana issue needs
closer examination
As a student at the University, I am
aware that there is a large community
of marijuana users on campus. I am
also aware of the history of marijuana
and how it became illegal in this coun
try. It has a past that was full of lurid
journalism and protection of corporate
financial gains for groups like the
pharmaceutical and timber industries.
One of the arguments for criminalizing
marijuana was the violent tendencies
it gave to people (which to anyone
who has used marijuana knows this
is simply not true). Much of the de
bate was also based on racial discrim
ination against African Americans
and Hispanics.
I feel that it is important and ab
solutely necessary for not only law
makers but also the average person to
take a look at the evidence for the le
galization of marijuana. The U.S. gov
ernment has continued to mislead
people on the true nature of marijua
na since it was made illegal. And
today marijuana research is very lim
ited, even for the purpose of medical
treatment, while cocaine and mor
phine are legal for medical use. Now
may not be the time to legalize mari
juana, and maybe there will never be
a time for that, but one thing that is
sure is that people need to get past
the brainwashing of our government,
take a step back, and actually learn
the truth, not just accept everything
we have been told.
Brandyn Bakanoff
Undergraduate
OREGON DAILY EMERALD LETTERS POLICY
Letters to the editor 3nd guest commentaries are encouraged, and should be sent to letters@dailyemerald.com or submitted at the Oregon Daily Emerald office. EMU Suite 300. Electronic
submissions are preferred. Letters are limited to 250 words, and guest commentaries to 550 words. Aufliors are limited to one submission per calendar month. Submissions should
include phone number and address for verification The Emerald reserves the right to edit for space, g-ammar and style. Guest submissions are published at the discretion of the Emerald
■ Editorial
PFC quickly
transforms
into working
committee
Last month, the Oregon Commentator’s
mission statement proposal resulted in a
two-hour, emotionally charged, chaotic meet
ing in which First Amendment rights were
threatened, content was criticized and a com
mittee member quit (temporarily) and ac
cused other PFC members of “sleeping
with the devil.” The next day grievances
were filed against three members of the
committee. Those members are currently
prohibited from voting.
Monday, the Commentator’s hearing was a
serene, half-hour gathering that actually ful
filled its purpose. There was no yelling, no in
sults and no drama. PFC members remained
viewpoint-neutral, as their jobs require.
Furthermore, late Monday night, PFC mem
bers experienced a change of heart and em
braced long-sought after changes to the
stipend model.
What has happened? PFC Vice Chair
Mason Quiroz and member Eden Cortez
are no longer allowed to vote; member
Dan Kieffer resigned; Michael Sherman and
Jared Axelrod joined the committee.
Now budget hearings are calm and busi
nesslike, and actions which should have
been implemented months ago are finally
being undertaken.
We congratulate our student leaders for
finally seeing the light at the 11th hour.
And while it is a huge relief to have sane
people on the PFC, this sudden shift proves
we desperately need to evaluate the system.
The personalities and backgrounds of
the committee members have radically shift
ed the dynamic, and that screams of flaws
in the selection, training and education
processes.
The PFC is supposed to be viewpoint
neutral; it shouldn’t matter who is on the
committee because the members’ own opin
ions and temperaments should not affect
the decision-making process. Committee
members need to be made aware of the
nature of their jobs before budget hearings be
gin in order to avoid the chaotic screaming
mess that resulted when a couple of volatile
PFC members let their personal opinions into
the process.
ED|T°R,AL BOARD
Jennifer Sudick Steven R. Neuman
Editor in Chief Managing Editor
David Jagemauth Shadra Beesley
Commentary Editor Copy Chief
Adrienne Nelson
Online Editor
CORRECTION
In Monday’s Emerald, Mike Martell was misidentified
as an ASUO controller in "Student funding benchmark
overspent.” Martell is ASUO finance coordinator.
In “Stipends overhauled for budget fix," published in
Tuesday’s paper, the Emerald reported that the new
stipend model would give top-level student government
leaders $200 per week, lower-ranking government lead
ers $175 per week and group leaders and some govern
ment members $150 per week. All are paid per month.
In "Making messes with messages,’’ published in
Tuesday's paper, an Emerald columnist claimed that
the Emerald’s estimated readership was 10,000. The
estimated readership for the Emerald is 20,000.
The Emerald regrets the errors.