Franz Kafka wrote “The Trial” more than a century ago. The character Joseph K., the chief clerk at a bank, is arrested, taken into custody, prosecuted and eventually sentenced to death. Joseph K. never knows who charged him, what the crime he committed, who is prosecuting him and who carries out the sentence.
The story stands as a commentary on the absurdity of power-hungry bureaucracies.
In an homage to Kafka, the Wyoming Republican Party adopted its “dispute resolution process.”
According to the Party’s bylaws, Article 2, Section 2, anyone wanting to be a Republican has to give up his or her rights under the Fifth, Seventh and Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, (including due process of the law and the right to a jury trial) and subject themselves to the purported dispute resolution process.
The Republican process allows the chairman of the Republican Party to choose a committee of five-to-nine people in his sole discretion, to meet in secret and decide disputes between Republicans.
No fundamental fairness is required.
The bylaws allow the Central Committee to have a lawyer of its own choosing. The same bylaws limit the right to counsel of any other party only to lawyers who are a members of the state central committee – which is effectively no one.
No rules of evidence or procedure are required. The committee can schedule meetings whenever it wants. It can take evidence or not, in its sole discretion.
The Party alleges this process is the sole remedy for dealing with “disputes between any two or more Republican party entities or members or delegates of those entities.”
If someone has the temerity to file a lawsuit to enforce rights under Wyoming law, the Party says it gets to collect its attorney’s fees for being sued.
Additionally, the Party purports to be able to enter a judgment, including a money judgment, in the court records of the state.
So, if the dispute resolution committee decides you owe money to the party, in a secret meeting, the Party says they can issue a money judgement against you. They can do this even though you never had a hearing in front of anyone.
The real-life operation of this kangaroo court happened in March. The Park County Republican Party was supposed to have elections.
The issue at the meeting was whether properly elected or appointed precinct committee people could vote for party officers, as provided by Wyoming statute 22-4-105 – or whether other people outside those elected by the voters get to vote for party leadership.
The party said its bylaws overrule the statutes and case law, and unelected people get to vote for party leadership.
People lodged objections to the process with county central committee, and an unelected executive committee member sent the objections to the state party, which then decided there was a “dispute” its leaders needed to handle.
The state party sent out notices to the objectors saying they had to abide by the kangaroo court rules and sign a confidentiality agreement or they didn’t get to participate in the star chamber. The objectors refused to participate, reiterating that county and state party bylaws do not trump Wyoming statutes and case law.
The dispute resolution committee met anyway.
It held a secret meeting and “ruled” the bylaws of the Wyoming Republican Party trump the clear language of the statutes and case law in a nearly identical case.
Then the dispute resolution committee, in one last stroke of arrogance said, “the Dispute Resolution Committee is the Party’s sole remedy and is full, final and not appealable.”
If the party were a private club, this whole process would be no big deal. But the party is a creation of law. It has extraordinary powers to choose who fills vacancies in public office.
If the Republican party apparatchiks were truly interested in election integrity, policing a private club’s maneuvers to let unelected people participate in statutorily mandated processes in violation of the law might be on the top of the list.
These machinations look like power-hungry operatives trying to preserve their power. Their operatives disguise their motives with political psychobabble aimed at covering their tracks.
The Wyoming Republican Party acts like it is above the law by passing bylaws that directly conflict with statutes, and by setting up their own private court system. But it is not.
The truth of the matter is, when a party demands waiver of constitutional rights to preserve its power, something is rotten in Wyoming. Republicans of Wyoming deserve better.
Tom Lubnau served in the Wyoming Legislature from 2004 - 2015 and is a former Speaker of the House. He can be reached at: YourInputAppreciated@gmail.com
