by RICH CASSIDY on JULY 17, 2010
The Uniform Laws Commission (formerly known as the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws) is a consensus-oriented organization, and one that is not accustomed to operating in the rough and tumble of partisan politics. At the end of our 2010 Annual Meeting on Thursday in Chicago, we adopted all ten Uniform Laws or amendments to existing Uniform Laws that were proposed at this meeting. Even the most controversial of these proposals, the Uniform Faithful Presidential Electors Act, received a favorable vote by the states of 44 yes, 1 no, 4 abstaining and 4 not present (All 50 states together with the District of Columbia, and the territories of Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands, are represented in the Commission).
But this is an election year, and even a non-partisan organization like the ULC can’t avoid occasional moments of being drawn in to the whirlpool that is electoral politics.
At the invitation of members of our host delegation, Governor Pat Quinn appeared Wednesday to sign a bill adopting the Uniform Athlete Agents Act as the law of Illinois. After lunch, the Commission took a few minutes from its usual deliberations to witness the signing. The members of the Illinois delegation, including Illinois State Senator A.J. Wilhelmi (who is also a member of the Commission), were seated on the dais as the signing ceremony commenced. Suddenly the proceedings were interrupted by an angry middle-aged woman who took possession of a microphone near the center of the floor and started shouting at Senator Wilhelmi, asking him what he was afraid of, and then at Governor Quinn, asking why he would not allow Tea Party Cedra Crenshaw on the ballot against Senator Wilhelmi. You can see the disruption, together with some Fox News political commentary that explains the background (and takes several gratuitous shots at the legal profession) right here:
Eventually the Tea Party activist was escorted out of the meeting, the ceremony was concluded, and the Commission returned to the relative calm of its ordinary proceedings.
Certainly the Commission is non-partisan. While most members, like Senator Wilhelmi, have political affiliations in their home states, members are addressed as “Commissioner,” on the floor and no one talks about party affiliation. We never see support or opposition to a proposed Act center on party politics.
Of course, in most states, the governor appoints members of the Commission, and while its membership is very stable over the years, we know that on occasion a change in political control in one or more of our members’ home jurisdictions results in an involuntary change in our membership.
So, although our deliberations remain rather calm (some would say boring) discussions about the technical quality of proposed state laws in areas where substantial uniformity among the states would be helpful, the Commission exists, like the nation itself, floating in a tumultuous sea of political conflict. And even that conflict is but a civilized substitute for its predecessor, a world in which the strong fought a never ending battle against one another for the right to exploit the weak. Sadly, that is a world which still exists where democracy has yet to take root.
The brief disruption of our lawyerly proceedings was, from my perspective, a useful reminder that our efforts are political in a broad sense and that we come from — and our work product returns to — a rough and tumble political world.
Rich