1999 Legislature: WAR ON THE OREGON BILL OF RIGHTS

by Andrea Meyer & David Fidanque

The third longest legislative session in Oregonâs history finally came to an end on July 24. It was one of the most combative, partisan and anti-civil liberties sessions in our memory. Despite promises from the Republican leadership that "social" issues would take a back seat to balancing the state budget, the radical rightâs anti-civil liberties agenda not only climbed up to the front seat but took control of the steering wheel.

On the whole, we were remarkably successful in preventing the worst of those proposals from becoming law or reaching the ballot. Nevertheless, the Oregon Bill of Rights is under an unprecedented assault as a result of this yearâs legislative action.

On this Novemberâs special election ballot will be the "Spawn of 40"÷seven separate constitutional amendments designed to re-enact Measure 40, the so-called "victimsâ rights" measure which we had succeeded in overturning last year in the Oregon Supreme Court. (See separate stories)

In addition, another dŽjˆ vu is the new censorship measure, a la Measures 19 & 31, which will appear on the November 2000 ballot. This one would weaken the Oregon free speech protection to allow for restrictive zoning of "sexually oriented" businesses whether or not those businesses actually have harmful effects on their surrounding neighborhood.

As usual, we monitored about 800 bills and actively lobbied on about 150. We testified before a number of committees that were downright hostile to the Bill of Rights. Much of the time, our testimony was greeted with polite indifference. Ironically, one of the committees that was most interested in our testimony was the House Judiciary Committee on Crime, chaired by Rep. Kevin Mannix. While Rep. Mannix introduced as many anti-civil liberties bills and constitutional amendments as ever, he was more collegial than some of his colleagues who are newer to the legislative process. Such collegiality used to be common at the Capitol. It is becoming increasingly rare, largely due to term limits.

It is never easy to choose a sample of votes to provide an accurate picture of where legislators stand on a wide-range of ACLU issues. We selected a sample of measures that were of critical concern to the ACLU. Despite the partisan nature of the session, we are pleased to report that there is still some bipartisan support for civil liberties. Please check your legislatorsâ records and thank them for their votes in support of the Bill of Rights. If you are from the districts of those legislators who received a "zero" score, please explore the civil libertiesâ positions of other candidates or think of running yourself!