A welcome sign of bipartisanship
AN amendment that would embed the rights of crime victims in the Oklahoma Constitution has easily cleared its first legislative hurdles. Senate Joint Resolution 46, which creates Marsy’s Law for Oklahoma, passed on a 43-2 vote.
The proposed amendment, which would have to be approved by Oklahoma voters, would add to the state constitution specific legal rights for crime victims. A similar measure, House Joint Resolution 1002, passed the Oklahoma House on a 90-5 vote.
The proposed amendment specifies that crime victims have a right to privacy and reasonable and timely notice of all proceedings. Victims would also be guaranteed the right to be present at all proceedings and the right to be heard at any proceeding impacting a victim’s rights. The government would be required to provide victims with reasonable protection, as well as notice of any release or escape involving the accused criminal.
Henry T. Nicholas, co-founder of Broadcom Corp., has pushed for adoption of such measures across the country since his sister, Marsy, was stalked and killed by an ex-boyfriend in 1983.
The proposal has drawn bipartisan support in our Legislature, as well as support from former Attorney General Mike Turpen, a Democrat, the Oklahoma District Attorneys Association, Oklahoma Fraternal Order of Police, Oklahoma Coalition Against Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault, Oklahoma Women’s Coalition, and YWCA Oklahoma City.
This is a rare —but welcome —instance of bipartisanship generating real results in the Legislature.
Remembering a colleague
Joel Levine, longtime music director for the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, tells of being so disappointed in a review written by The Oklahoman’s Rick Rogers that he didn’t speak to Rogers for seven months. The two finally sat down for lunch and “that was all it took to wash that away,” Levine remembered this week. What that lunch meeting underscored, no doubt, was that Rick had solid reasons for what he had written, and that it wasn’t personal. It never was with Rick, who from 1988 until his retirement in 2013 (and regularly after that, on a freelance basis) provided The
Oklahoman’s readers with first-rate critiques of local and national fine arts events. He combined his knowledge —he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from Oklahoma City University — his passion and his strong writing skills to provide a truly special slice of the newspaper. He also was as decent a person as you would ever meet. Rick died Monday after a brief fight with cancer, gone much too soon at age 64. The fine arts community and this newspaper will miss him dearly.
Canadian attitudes
The opposition of many U.S. citizens to illegal immigration has been portrayed by some critics as a sign of backward parochialism, proof that Americans lack the sophistication of people in other nations. A new Reuters/ Ipsos opinion poll of Canadian attitudes undercuts that argument. The poll found nearly half of Canadians want to deport people who illegally cross into Canada from the United States. Those illegal immigrants have been disproportionately asylum-seekers of African and Middle Eastern origin fleeing the U.S. due to fear that President Trump’s policies may lead to their deportation. The Reuters poll found roughly four out of 10 Canadians believe those border crossers could make Canada “less safe.” Canadian attitudes were similar to views recorded in polling of U.S. citizens, so critics of such views should admit they are driven by issues far more substantive than mere xenophobia.
Government “work”
Oklahoma government faces a huge shortfall, which makes one wonder why members of the state House decided their focus would be on passing legislation to increase the number of paid holidays for government employees. House Bill 1444, by Rep. Dustin Roberts, R-Durant, would make Good Friday a designated paid state holiday. The new day off would join a list that already includes New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and the day after, and Christmas Day and the day after. House staff estimated no financial impact because “measuring any potential temporary reduction in employee productivity presents difficulties, and the time off is not considered a financial liability.” Somehow we doubt Oklahoma taxpayers will find that a terribly convincing argument, and one wonders why only 22 Republicans and two Democrats voted against the bill.
On writing well
In an op-ed in The Oklahoman this week, Oklahoma City University President Robert Henry and one of his former colleagues on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals noted that among other things, U.S. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch “writes beautifully and accessibly.” Henry’s colleagues in the legal profession think similarly of him. Next month, the American Society of Legal Writers (known as Scribes) will present Henry with its annual lifetime achievement award. Henry joked that he would normally consider receiving such an award as “damning with not-so-faint praise: legal writing as a rule is terrible.” However, Scribes “emphasizes clarity and accessibility.” Those traits certainly came through in Henry’s op-ed supporting Gorsuch’s nomination — it was easy to read and devoid of legalese. We’ll keep it simple ourselves in saying, congratulations on this honor.
Not this session
We were pleased to see that a bill dealing with transfers of high school athletes won’t be heard this session. Instead, the bill’s author says he plans to request an interim study regarding the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association. As written, the bill sought to let students transfer and be immediately eligible for extracurricular varsity competition, provided notice was given five days before the first day of school. Presently, students must sit out a year of varsity sports after transferring —they can still play JV —unless they have physically moved into the district or are granted a hardship waiver by the OSSAA. The bill was amended to apply only to custody cases and court-ordered transfers. But this is an issue best handled by the OSSAA and not by the Legislature.
Democratic opportunity?
Sen. Ralph Shortey’s legal problems may create a rare opportunity for Democrats to pick up a legislative seat. Shortey, arrested for prostitution-related offenses allegedly involving a teenage male, resigned from office this week. Attorney Michael Brooks-Jimenez, a Democrat who challenged Shortey in 2014, has already announced he will run for the seat in a coming special election. Brooks-Jimenez is a solid candidate. Democrats probably couldn’t hope for better. And the circumstances of the special election may favor them. After former Sen. Rick Brinkley, R-Owasso, resigned from office after being convicted of stealing more than $1.8 million from his employer, Democrats won the subsequent special election. Brinkley’s seat was much more heavily Republican than is Shortey’s. Low turnout in special elections, combined with Republican voters’ disgust with members of their own party, could combine to give a quality Democratic candidate a good shot when normal conditions would otherwise favor a Republican.