August 25, 2003

(Updated) Breaking News: Oregon Senate Passes Resolution In Protest Of USA PATRIOT Act

Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.

Originally rumored (including a confirmation by a staffer for the Senate Democrats on Friday) to be taken up on Saturday, the Oregon State Senate moments ago conducted the third reading of Senate Joint Memorial 7, urging the "United States Congress to pass Senate Bill 1552 to correct provisions of USA Patriot Act," and passed the resolution by a vote of 23 to 2.

The memorial was carried to the floor today by one of its sponsors, Senator Tony Corcoran (replete in Hawaiian shirt), who called it a "simple memorial," referring to the whereas clause in line 25 (which begins, "Whereas certain provisions of the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001...") as the "most telling part of the memorial." Corcoran also referred to the "odd bedfellows" in the list of sponsors, explaining that the USA PATRIOT Act "affects both the left and the right."

Senator Vicki Walker took a moment "to thank the Lane County Bill of Rights Defense Committee in their dogged determination in coming to the Capitol" to urge support for and passage of this memorial. After reading from a Lane County BoRDC pamphlet which lists the effects of the USA PATRIOT Act, she assured her colleagues that opposition to the PATRIOT Act was not coming merely from a "bunch of wacked-out liberals."

Finally, Senator Bill Morrisette rose to spoke about the Japanese internments during World War Two as a historical argument to "not repeat the mistakes of the past," and said that "this is a great memorial."

Representatives of the various Bill of Rights Defense Committees in Oregon (standard disclosure: until July 1, I was an organizer for the Portland Bill of Rights Defense Committee) are circulating a letter designed to show Oregon House Speaker Karen Minnis that House members wish to see a floor vote on SJM 7 in that chamber. Contact your Representive and ask them to sign onto this letter in support of a floor vote on SJM 7 before the Legislature gets around to ending the session.

August 25, 2003

Update

The Lane County Bill of Rights Defense Committee is reporting 3 votes against the memorial. I'm not sure where the third came from, since I'm fairly certain that when the vote tally was read aloud, it was 23-2, but perhaps that was an error.

August 25, 2003

Update

I forgot to mention that Senator John Minnis of SB 742 infamy voted in favor of the memorial.

August 25, 2003

Update

Word from the Portland Bill of Rights Defense Committee is that resolution backers are now requesting that Oregonians contact the office of Speaker of the House Karen Minnis directly and urge her to allow a floor vote on SJM 7.

August 25, 2003

Update

Further to-do items courtesy of the Lane County BoRDC:

Contact someone you know in Salem, who can contact House Rules Chair Dan Doyle and ask Representative Doyle to put SJM 7 on the Rules Committee agenda early tomorrow.� Ask that the Committee pass the memorial to the House floor with a "do pass motion."
Contact your local representative (unless you're in Prozanski's, Ackerman's, Beyer's, or Barnhardt's districts -- all of them are supporting the memorial and already helping us) and ask them to do whatever they can to get this to the House floor tomorrow, and ask them to vote YES.� Please�thank them�if they do support the memorial.� If you're in Pat Farr's district, please ask him to speak to Dan Doyle to move this memorial through.� Farr is also supporting the memorial, so please thank him for his support.� Corvallis folks can focus on turning around Betsy Close, who is not very supportive at this moment.�Bend folks can contact Tim Knopp, who is the House Majority Leader.� He could be influential with Doyle.

According to the Lane County group, there is a "slim, but possible chance" at getting SJM 7 through the Oregon House before they adjourn, which is expected to occur before Labor Day, and could even happen Tuesday.

August 25, 2003

Update

And here is the Associated Press article on the vote, not released until late this afternoon, despite being comprised entirely of information available as of the conclusion of the vote.

Posted at 11:17 AM | PermalinkComments (3) | TrackBacks (1)
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Comments (3)

  1. The One True b!X on 25 Aug 2003

    And no, I'm not in Salem. I was watching the streaming video out of the Senate.

  2. no one in particular on 25 Aug 2003

    A correction was posted. You were right, and the vote was 23-2. The correction is here:
    http://mailman.efn.org/pipermail/bill_of_rights/2003-August/000624.html

  3. Matt on 25 Aug 2003

    I feel like doing a little dance! Let's hope that the house dosen't mess it up.

Trackbacks (1)

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