Freedom, At Last, For the Oklahoma 3

Joe Mathews — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:14:00 -0500

Big news in the direct democracy world. Oklahoma's attorney general, who had brought a dubious prosecution of term limits advocate and two professionals -- the "Oklahoma 3" in initiative land -- for conspiracy to violate the state's law against out-of-state petition gatherers, announced today that he will drop the charges, the Associated Press reports. The decision comes after a federal appeals court struck down the law that the three were accused of violating.

The attorney general, Drew Edmondson, also declared he wouldn't appeal the court decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. That's wise. The state almost certainly would have lost. Attempts to regulate signature gathering typically run afoul of First Amendment protections of political speech. And the Oklahoma law was especially wrong-headed; it made illegal what is standard practice in American initiative politics: the gathering of signatures by traveling circulators. The real question is why Edmondson persisted for so long -- it's been more than a year -- in pursuing the charges. Conservatives saw political bias. (Edmondson's a Democrat). Liberals unwisely exulted over the prosecution, despite the threat to free speech it represented. If they have any honor, the New York Times and the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center owe Jacob and his fellow defendants an apology.

Here's a toast to the web site, Free Paul Jacob, and a question about what's next over there.

As for Oklahoma, even with Edmondson's decision, it remains the toughest state in which to qualify a measure. Most significant, there's a 90-day time limit for gathering signatures -- that's very little time. The criminal prosecution had scared off initiative sponsors. Perhaps this decision will coax a few direct democrats back into Oklahoma.

Paul Jacob Fears Prison Riots?

Joe Mathews — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:01:00 -0400

The leader of the term limits movement and two other organizers of a petition drive in Oklahoma are under state indictment there on charges they broke laws related to out of state signature gathering. The indictment lookis like an over-the-top attempt by state attorney general Drew Edmondson to criminalize signature gathering in a state that is already the most difficult state to qualify an initiative in. Oklahoma has the shortest time period for gathering signatures -- 90 days -- which in and of itself puts the lie to claims by officials there that they want to make signature gathering a grass roots process. With such a short time period, paid petition circulators are the only way to qualify a measure; no grass roots operation can gather enough signatures that fast. (This is a point that Bob Stern makes in his excellent new report on the initiaitve process in California; he argues that time period be extended in the Golden State, from 150 days to a year, to permit grass roots groups to gather signatures).

There's an entertaining blog, Free Paul Jacob, that focuses on the case. A look at legal precedent suggests that eventually, Jacob and his co-defendants, who are free on bail, will beat these charges. But there's enough worry that the site is blogging about a prison fight at the Oklahoma State Reformatory.