The Knight is gratified to be joined in his opinion that the Sizemore/Norquist Measure-59 raises significant First Amendment questions. In the just-released Voters' Pamphlet for the Nov.3, 1998 election, five Deans and former Deans of Willamette University College of Law and the University of Oregon Law School, including Oregon Attorney General Dave Frohnmeyer, express their opinion that M-59 unconstitutionally limits Oregon citizens' freedom of speech. These legal scholars describe M-59 as "vague and unclear," and they suggest that, in addition to gutting the Voters' Pamphlet, M-59 prohibits, "rental or use of traditional public forums such as schools, plazas, or parks for political gatherings. It also seems to forbid the use of public law enforcement to direct traffic or provide public safety at such events."
The Knight adds that the issue of purpose for the payroll deduction is reasonably outside the scope of the labor contract which commits the public agencies to withhold money from employee paychecks for all kinds of employee - authorized purposes - legal purposes, to be sure. Any intrusion into the unions' right to use that money for any constitutionally protected purpose could be held to infringe upon that right. For example, it might also be unconstitutional for a state, in which public funding for abortion is prohibited, to prohibit payroll deductions for health plans which pay for abortions.
Once again Sizemore, Oregon Taxpayers United, and "hate-government" reactionaries have poured out-of-state corporate money into promoting an Oregon initiative which is poorly written and threatens intolerable and unconstitutional consequences. These corruptions of the Oregon initiative process, which have repeatedly cost taxpayers and the legal system time, money, and confusion, are a clear lesson that Oregonians must reform the initiative process. There must be some minimal review which can be used to screen proposed initiatives for constitutionality. Currently the only requirement is for the sponsors to have access to a couple of million dollars of special interest money.