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LEGAL DIRECTOR'S REPORT

By C.S. Thornton

The American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma’s Legal Department began the year with participation in a case like no other this affiliate has seen before. While ACLU of Oklahoma lawyers have been previously involved in a challenge to a ballot measure, that challenge primarily relied on pure legal arguments. This year, we were involved in a challenge to a ballot measure based not only upon pure legal arguments, but more notably based upon the validity of signatures collected. Initiative Petition 387, also known as SQ 737, pitted Ward Connerly and his supporters in Oklahoma against lawyers not only from the ACLU of Oklahoma, but also lawyers from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. The initiative petition in question would have erased all affirmative action programs currently employed by the State of Oklahoma. Program Coordinator Tamya Cox and I had the great privilege of working with not only Reggie Shuford and Andre Segura of National ACLU’s Racial Justice Program, but also with Marc Battle and Anurima Bhargava of LDF. Of course there were many other lawyers between the two groups who entered an appearance in the case, including, but not limited to, Dennis Parker, Lenora Lapidus, Araceli Martinez-Olguin, and John Payton.

Initiative Petition 387 required our office to hire a team of ballot initiative experts to oversee the counting procedure as well as a group of highly dedicated “signature analysts” to plow through over 140,000 signatures. Needless to say, this effort had to be put together very quickly as the period available to challenge an initiative petition is extremely limited. We were very pleased with the performance of our team, but oddly enough, the proponents of the petition decided to file a motion to withdraw the petition from inclusion on the Fall ballot four days before the date of our first scheduled hearing in front of the Oklahoma Supreme Court referee who was to preside over the signature challenges. Shortly after that development, the Court directed all parties of record to file a brief showing cause why the petition should not be withdrawn. The ACLU of Oklahoma, along with its partners at National ACLU and LDF filed a brief agreeing that the petition should be withdrawn. Attorney General Drew Edmondson likewise filed a brief advocating withdrawal of the initiative petition. The deadline for those briefs was April 29. As of press time, we have heard nothing from the Oklahoma Supreme Court. It would appear that inclusion of the question on the Fall ballot will not happen.

Of course it’s not always the large cases that command our attention.  Last year, I was contacted by a gentleman named Buck Miller. Miller, who uses a mobility scooter prescribed by his doctor and paid for by Medicare, was denied the use of his mobility scooter in a campground area in Lake Murray State Park. At that time, it was a campground “host” denying him the use of his scooter. I spoke with Miller and offered our assistance, but shortly after our conversation the park authorities relented and we thought that Miller’s troubles at Lake Murray State Park had come to an end.

This year Miller contacted me again. Apparently the “higher ups” at the park told him he could not use his mobility scooter. I drafted an open records request and sent it to the park manager asking for copies of policies which denied park patrons the ability to use mobility scooters. Approximately a week later, the park authorities sent us return correspondence stating:

“We were disallowing the use of the motor driven cycle based on information from our Oklahoma City office. However, after researching current law, we have a [sic] discovered a law that does allow the use of motorized wheelchair or an electric personal assistive mobility device in the campgrounds…We will also forward this information to our Oklahoma City office and to all the staff here at Lake Murray.”

It is the ACLU of Oklahoma’s sincere hope that Mr. Miller has some great visits to Lake Murray this summer.

Our affiliate is also busy working against some of the less noble efforts of some of our state legislators, not least among them the attempt to pass into law “English Only.”  On June 20, Katy Jones, our new Communications Coordinator, and I attended a meeting in Tulsa called by Chief Chad Smith of the Cherokee Tribe. The meeting drew activists from all over the state and included representatives from several different organizations, such as CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations) and LULAC (the League of United Latin American Citizens). Our good friends, and current affiliate board members, Juanita Sykes and Ed Romo were also in attendance

            In closing, I would like to mention some exciting news concerning projects in the works. Back in 1995, shortly after coming on board at the affiliate as a cooperating attorney, I founded ACLU of Oklahoma’s Project for Freedom of Conscience and Expression (our First Amendment Project). At the time, there was a Reproductive Rights Project, and a Human Rights Project (LGBT Project). Not too long after that, we started an Anti-Death Penalty Project. Over the years, the projects became dormant. I am pleased to report that we have a new intern, Matt Whalen, who will be a law student beginning this Fall. Whalen has agreed to be the project director for our Anti-Death Penalty Project. He has been quite busy attending Oklahoma Coalition Against the Death Penalty (OCADP) meetings as the affiliate’s representative and he also attended and assisted in organizing a vigil against the execution of Terry Lyn Short at the Governor’s Mansion.

Another recent addition to our roster of volunteers is Tammy Thomas, a 2L at OU. She and Matt drafted a letter to Governor Brad Henry requesting that Short’s sentence be commuted to life without possibility of parole. It is my hope that the Anti-Death Penalty Project will prosper and that we might have a First Amendment Project in place by the end of this year.

Both Whalen and Thomas are energetic, dedicated volunteers and we expect great things from both of them over the coming year. I hope that you have the opportunity to meet them at either our Bill of Rights Banquet, our Annual Meeting, or one of our many other public events.