Oregon in the Courts

Lots of news on the legal front. Over at About It All, blogger Rob Salzman is wondering about the "selective federalism" in the Bush Administration's lawsuit against Oregon's assisted suicide law:

When it suits conservatives, they’re all for the state’s ability to experiment. When it goes against what conservatives belive - gay marriage, assisted suicide, etc - then they’re all for the federal government stepping in. I wish they’d step back and let the states be incubators - do the experiments to see what does and doesn’t work in our society!

The Supreme Court (the Roberts Court?!) will be taking up Gonzales v. Oregon on October 5th. Discuss over at About It All.

Meanwhile, back here in the state, the legal fight over Measure 36 got underway in Marion County. Gay Rights Watch has the run-down:

The issue before the court is if the measure itself, is constitutional. The judge could find it unconstitutional for a variety of reasons. Those being:

The first claim asserts that Measure 36 revises, rather than amends, the Oregon Constitution by violating the fundamental principles of liberty and justice on which the Constitution is based, by changing the allocation of power among the branches of government because it restricts the role of the courts in interpreting the constitution and by imposing a policy on local governments.

Secondly, while Measure 36 contains only one sentence, the addition of this provision to the Oregon Constitution creates multiple changes that should have been proposed as separate amendments. Because these multiple amendments and fundamental changes were all included under the umbrella of Measure 36, the measure violates constitutional provisions which require that voters must approve separate amendments with separate votes.

Discuss over at Gay Rights Watch.

Sept. 27, 2005 Posted in elsewhere.