How the ASUC was BAMNboozled

Former Judicial Council Chairman Mike Davis exposes BAMN

By Mike Davis
From the March 2005 Print Edition

“We’re settling, Mike. Fifteen thousand.”

I was stunned. “Peter, dude, you’ve got to be kidding me,” I said.

“Nope,” Peter responded, “We can’t afford her declaring ‘state action.’”

How did this group, which has to bribe school children with pizza to put on a protest, manage to pressure the ASUC into a financial settlement?

The story began when Senator Paul LaFata brought a suit to the ASUC Judicial Council alleging CalSERVE broke a campaign bylaw by using a Students for Justice in Palestine event for campaign purposes. This merited automatic disqualification. In a separate, virtually identical allegation, LaFata charged the Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP) with the same violation, threatening the two parties most visibly representing minority student interests with losing ASUC representation.

In the audience of the Judicial Council hearing was Luke Massie, national co-chairperson of By Any Means Necessary (BAMN). He is extremely well-read and moves easily between moral philosophy, political theory, and epistemology, whether making arguments or casual conversation. Massie also mixes his passion and conviction with a healthy dose of hyperbole. He once railed against the Council, insisting we instituted an Orwellian state replete with Thought Police and Kafkaesque bureaucracy when we issued DAAP one censure for failing to turn in campaign receipts.

Massie was in the audience that night to observe the evidence LaFata would be bringing against CalSERVE and DAAP. Throughout direct examination, Massie audibly gasped and scoffed in disbelief, and would scowl intently at witnesses as if trying to understand how anyone could be asserting such unfathomable accusations, and have the audacity to believe them.

Toward the end of direct examination, Senior Associate Justice Bobby Gregg informed me that Massie was intimidating the witnesses and should be admonished to mellow his reactions. When Jamie Liu started her cross examination and Massie showed no signs of ceasing his intimidation, Gregg finally called for a recess. During the recess, every member agreed with Gregg. They all wanted Massie to stop his antics for the sake of the witnesses and the Council.

We came back to the hearing and Massie was warned to be quiet and afford all parties the proper respect, at which point he stuck his tongue out at the ASUC Judicial Council. I immediately held him in contempt and ordered him to leave the chambers. When he refused, the hearing was closed to the public. The Judicial Council went upstairs to continue the hearing, followed by Massie, Yvette Felarca, and two or three supporters, demanding to appeal my contempt citation. The Council considered the appeal and affirmed the contempt order.

CalSERVE was eventually cleared. Paul LaFata dropped his case against DAAP, but filed another, alleging that it had threatened and badgered the Judicial Council as well as his witnesses. This violation also merited immediate disqualification, but with a twist. The ASUC election bylaws stipulate that candidates are held responsible for any action taken by an authorized agent, and further stipulate that the signatory of the party is by definition an agent of every candidate in that party. Felarca was the signatory of the Defend Affirmative Action Party, and as such any badgering/threatening she did would not only bring punishment upon herself but every candidate in her party.

In the suit, LaFata alleged he had received threatening phone calls from Felarca, that Massie had intimidated his witnesses, and that the altercation on the second floor constituted badgering and threatening of the Council. After the case was heard, DAAP was cleared of all charges except badgering the Council.

After deciding badgering had occurred, punishment was automatic. The Council was forbidden from issuing punishments other than those the Senate prescribed in the bylaws. We had to disqualify the entire DAAP slate for Felarca’s brattiness, but we granted DAAP a rehearing in an effort to give the party another chance at giving us a reason not to disqualify it. It could not.

It could, however, bring a suit against the ASUC in US Federal District Court, charging the ASUC with violating its civil rights under the 1983 Civil Rights Act. This law made it possible for individuals to sue state entities for violating their civil rights, and requires the offending entity to pay the legal costs of bringing the suit. DAAP argued that the Council could not legally hear the case brought by Paul LaFata since the Council itself had been involved in the altercation, and that the Council was an entity of the State of California since the ASUC derives its authority from the University of California, which derives state authority from the Regents.

But those who filed the federal suit were deeply connected to BAMN through communist affiliations. The lead counsel for DAAP was George B. Washington, a Detroit-based labor relations attorney of the law firm Scheff and Washington. An Internet search confirms what had previously been dismissed as ASUC lore: Mr. Washington was in fact heavily involved with an organization called the Revolutionary Workers League (RWL), a self-proclaimed Trotskyist group seeking revolution in the United States. The League works toward this goal through several front organizations, including BAMN. The ties between BAMN and the RWL were revealed in a December Patriot report.

Massie plays an integral role in the Revolutionary Workers League. His sister, Miranda Massie, works in Mr. Washington’s law firm. She argued for the interveners before the Supreme Court in the Michigan affirmative action case, and is currently defending a high school student who beat his pregnant girlfriend with a baseball bat, causing her to abort the fetus. BAMN is not just a group of students fighting for affirmative action, but a front for a communist revolutionary umbrella seeking to overthrow capitalism.

In filing for judicial relief, DAAP’s legal team asked the court to halt the tallying of votes unless DAAP was allowed to participate. Administrative officials demanded that at least executive races be tallied and such demands could not be refused. We ordered the Elections Council to proceed with the vote tally on the condition that races in which a DAAP candidate won would not be certified. The court agreed.

The executive races were conclusive; no DAAP candidate came close to winning. Felarca, however, had garnered enough votes to take a senate seat, forcing us to leave the senate in limbo. Throughout the summer, the lawyers representing the ASUC and DAAP traded briefs and motions and the court took its time making its decision.

At the summer’s end, the case was nowhere near completion and the ASUC would need a functioning senate in a few weeks. For the case to be resolved and the senate race to be certified, I told ASUC President Misha Leybovich that one of two things had to happen: either DAAP drop its lawsuit or the election rules change to give the Judicial Council more discretion in punishing violations so we could overrule our previous decisions, thus allowing DAAP back into the election and mooting their case in court.

Leyobvich asked me to write an Executive Order that would survive Judicial Council scrutiny, which he later signed. This would override election bylaws so that a resolution could be reached. The Judicial Council approved it without much discussion, paving the way for us to overrule our previous decisions if DAAP would appeal.

After this development, the DAAP could not be found. I suspected the party did not really want to be let back into the race and loose its position in federal court, and by extension, its claims to “legal fees” their close ally, Mr. Washington, was allegedly charging them. After days without a response, Leyobvich appealed the case on DAAP’s behalf and with the new power the Council approval, we overruled the automatic disqualification and opted to give DAAP two censures instead. With DAAP back in the race, and the election results tallied, we certified the senate. When the court was alerted, the federal case was quickly thrown out, as DAAP received everything it said it wanted. But most of all, because the ASUC came to the terms voluntarily, no damages would be awarded.

The RWL didn’t put this much work into the case to leave empty-handed, so DAAP amended its original filing, charging the ASUC with violating its free speech rights and punishing it with two censures. Since the two censures are meaningless, I was confident the court would decide in our favor. There were no tangible damages BAMN could point to.

But the court’s ruling wasn’t what worried other ASUC officials. It was how the judge arrived at her decision and how long it took. If the federal judge conclusively declared the ASUC to be a state entity, deriving its authority from the Regents, it would give the University a greater ability to meddle in ASUC internal affairs, virtually eliminating any autonomy the organization has left. The ASUC would pay almost anything to keep a judge from finally putting the organization under the administration’s thumb. It was assessed that going on with the court case would cost more money than it would take to just buy off the RWL. The senate finally threw up its collective hands in disgust, and appropriated $15,000 of student funds to settle the case and maintain its independence.

Senator Felarca was well aware that it would. Her group was playing an extortion game from the start: hold the ASUC’s independence hostage and it will pay whatever ransom. The effort was an incredibly shrewd move designed to line the pockets of BAMN’s allies and keep the group in operation for years to come.

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