To members of the Libertarian Party Judicial Committee,

This is in response to the petition of Wes Wagner et al to the Judicial Committee regarding the Libertarian Party of Oregon.  My response below is in addition to rather than in place of the joint response from a number of LNC members (which I have also joined), and only touches on one particular aspect which I believe deserves separate comment.

Even though the new Constitution and Bylaws created by the Wes Wagner faction at the March 31, 2011 State Committee meeting were clearly not adopted in accordance with the amendment procedure specified in the existing Constitution and Bylaws, the assertion has been made that there was no alternative available, in that it was impossible to assemble a quorum at a state convention to amend those documents in the established manner.  Assuming for the sake of argument that a convention quorum really was impossible to attain (an issue which I do not here opine upon), it is still not the case that no other path was available to rectify this problem.

The Libertarian Party of Oregon always had at its disposal what I have dubbed the "nuclear option":  Its State Committee could have voluntarily voted to disaffiliate itself from the national Libertarian Party.  Alternately, if the State Committee did not believe it had the authority under its Constitution and Bylaws to take that action, it could have passed a resolution strongly requesting that the national LP vote to disaffiliate it.  The national LP would have had to cite a "cause" for disaffiliation, but the impossibility of attaining a convention quorum to amend the Oregon LP's Constitution and Bylaws to correct the cited quorum defect could reasonably be construed as adequate cause, especially since the Oregon LP would not be appealing the (voluntary) revocation of its affiliate status to the Judicial Committee.

Once disaffiliated, a new application for affiliation could be submitted to the Libertarian National Committee under the provisions of Article 6.2 of the national Bylaws, based on a set of revised LPO governing documents which (among other things) fixed the quorum problem.  The LNC would still have had to approve the affiliate application, and at that time the LNC might have considered competing affiliate applications from other groups of Libertarians.  But if a strong enough case was presented to the LNC, it's likely that the LNC would have approved the reorganized Oregon affiliate.

Up until their terms of office ended upon the adjournment of the May 21st state convention, Mr. Wagner and the other officers and State Committee members could have availed themselves of this disaffiliation option.  They could have taken that action at their March 31st meeting.  For whatever reason, they chose not to do so.  Instead, they attempted to adopt new governing documents, in direct contradiction to the specified amendment procedures, citing as their legal basis a State of Oregon statute which did not apply to minor parties.  That attempt, however well-intentioned it may have been, was fatally defective.  Nor could it be justified by any kind of "doctrine of necessity" contention, given that at least one viable alternative was in fact available.

Daniel Wiener

LNC member