By J. Kevin Hunt
Once again, in Measure 40, Oregonians are being asked to nullify their state constitution and to surrender their judicial functions to a handful of unelected, lifetime, political appointee federal judges, many of whom have never set foot in our state.
Worse, under the false and misleading label of "victims' rights," well-meaning but misguided enemies of freedom have trotted forth a Trojan horse that will legalize outrageous and offensive governmental invasions of privacy, contrary to the traditional values always held by Oregonians.
Oregon currently has some of the nation's most progressive victims' rights laws, which guarantee that crime victims are fully informed about court hearings, have their schedules considered regarding trial dates, have the right to attend all court hearings, are permitted to address the court concerning sentence, may keep their addresses secret from defendants and may have a prosecutor present when voluntarily speaking to defense lawyers.
Measure 40 redundantly and unnecessarily writes these already existing provisions into the state Constitution. That is the bait. The switch in this insidious scheme occurs in the other sections of the measure, which would legalize the following practices (among others), previously halted by Oregon appellate courts under the state Constitution.
* The removal by the government of roadside rest area toilet stall doors, and the installation of hidden cameras through which government agents view all motorists in the process of using the toilet (outlawed by the Oregon Court of Appeals in State vs. Cascone; similar practices deemed legal by federal courts).
* Secret placement of hidden tracking transmitters on the vehicle of any person government agents wish to monitor by aircraft or surveillance cars, without first obtaining a warrant, even if the government agents do not have probable cause to believe the person being tracked has committed or is about to commit a crime (outlawed by the Oregon Supreme Court in State vs. Campbell; deemed all right by federal judges).
This is but a small sample of the horrors to be unleashed by Measure 40's bait and switch. Measure 40 would prohibit our state courts from applying the Oregon Constitution in any manner providing greater protections than the U.S. Constitution, as interpreted by the unelected federal judges in San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
Because Measure 40 unconstitutionally addresses more than one subject, its passage would guarantee a lengthy, expensive series of lawsuits, funded by taxpayers. In the process, the state attorney general is placed in the unseemly position of defending a measure to nullify the Constitution the attorney general is sworn to uphold!
In these times when Americans are demanding that more control be returned to the states, and that the federal government's intrusions be reduced, it is difficult to believe that Oregonians would tear up their state Constitution and surrender their privacy rights to a handful of federal judges completely out of touch with Oregon values.
Don't be tricked by Measure 40. It adds nothing to Oregon's excellent victims' rights laws. Rather, it makes victims of us all.
J. Kevin Hunt practices law in Oregon City.