Oregon Law Review : Vol. 87, No. 3 (2008)https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/97032024-03-29T14:02:47Z2024-03-29T14:02:47ZOregon Law Review : Vol. 87 No. 3, p.1061-1100 : The Oregon Constitution and the Quest for Party ReformClucas, Richard A.https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/97572015-06-18T01:07:07Z2008-01-01T00:00:00ZOregon Law Review : Vol. 87 No. 3, p.1061-1100 : The Oregon Constitution and the Quest for Party Reform
Clucas, Richard A.
In Part I, I provide
a history of political parties in Oregon, describing their importance
from before statehood to the present. This section explains how the
role of political parties has changed over time and why party reform
has come to look so appealing. In Part II, I examine three reform
proposals that have been discussed in Oregon over the past several
years: a nonpartisan legislature, the top-two primary, and fusion
voting. I conclude by discussing other factors underlying Oregon’s
political problems and some alternative solutions.
40 p.
2008-01-01T00:00:00ZOregon Law Review : Vol. 87 No. 3, p. 1025-1060 : The Majority Will: A Case Study of Misinformation, Manipulation, and the Oregon Initiative ProcessAbrams, Paulahttps://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/97562015-06-18T01:07:10Z2008-01-01T00:00:00ZOregon Law Review : Vol. 87 No. 3, p. 1025-1060 : The Majority Will: A Case Study of Misinformation, Manipulation, and the Oregon Initiative Process
Abrams, Paula
This Article presents a case study of the initiative process by
examining the campaigns waged for and against the School Bill. It is
not intended to provide a thorough study of deception and
discrimination in the initiative process. Instead, this Article offers
case-specific insight into how voters can be manipulated by
misinformation and prejudice. Part I examines the tension between
representative democracy and the initiative process, particularly how
the initiative undermines the deliberative process. Part II explores the
history of the Oregon initiative prior to the School Bill. Part III
describes how the Oregon initiative campaign for compulsory public
education used misinformation to confuse voters and encourage
bigotry. Part IV analyzes how voter ignorance, fear, and prejudice
toward minority groups may taint the initiative process. Part V
explores legal solutions and recommends that the courts reject the
presumption of constitutionality attached to facially neutral legislation
or legislation targeting nonsuspect classes and closely scrutinize
direct legislation that harms historically disadvantaged groups.
36 p.
2008-01-01T00:00:00ZOregon Law Review : Vol. 87 No. 3, p. 979-1024 : Direct Democracy, the Guaranty Clause, and the Politics of the “Political Question” Doctrine: Revisiting Pacific TelephoneWilliams, Norman R.https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/97552015-06-18T01:07:11Z2008-01-01T00:00:00ZOregon Law Review : Vol. 87 No. 3, p. 979-1024 : Direct Democracy, the Guaranty Clause, and the Politics of the “Political Question” Doctrine: Revisiting Pacific Telephone
Williams, Norman R.
In light of the widespread use of direct democracy in Oregon and
elsewhere, this anniversary provides a good occasion to examine how
direct democracy at the state and local levels became an accepted part
of the American constitutional order. In this Article, I argue that the
constitutionality of direct democracy has never received the thorough
judicial consideration that the issue deserves. The Oregon Supreme
Court, which validated the initiative and referendum, did so in a case
that, significantly, did not involve an initiated or referred measure; it
was decided on other, nonconstitutional grounds that obviated the
need for the U.S Supreme Court to opine on the constitutionality of
direct democracy. By the time that the validity of direct democracy
reached the U.S. Supreme Court several years later, the heated
political controversy surrounding the adoption of direct democracy in
several western states induced the Court in Pacific Telephone to avoid
reaching the merits of the question. The net result was to close the
federal courts to constitutional challenges to direct democracy under
the Guaranty Clause, a doctrine that has—erroneously in my view—
remained in place ever since.
46 p.
2008-01-01T00:00:00ZOregon Law Review : Vol. 87 No. 3, p.939-978 : The Partly Fulfilled Promise of Home Rule in OregonDiller, Paul, A.https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/97542015-06-18T01:07:12Z2008-01-01T00:00:00ZOregon Law Review : Vol. 87 No. 3, p.939-978 : The Partly Fulfilled Promise of Home Rule in Oregon
Diller, Paul, A.
This Article discusses some of the strengths and weaknesses of
Oregon’s home-rule system. It posits that a particular advantage of
Oregon’s home-rule system is its unique “reverse assumptions” of
validity for local civil and criminal enactments.
40 p.
2008-01-01T00:00:00Z