The Judicial Committee of the Libertarian Party of California unanimously ruled this month that the party’s Executive Committee failed to meet a bylaws requirement for properly notifying members about the 2025 annual convention. The Executive Committee is now required to set a new date with proper notice.
The ruling, issued earlier in the month but published Thursday, mandates the Executive Committee to set new dates for the party’s upcoming convention and notify members with at least 120 days’ advance notice. The appeal was brought by five Central Committee members—including Jessica Tewksbury and former party chair Mark Hinkle—who argued that notification emails sent in October and November were insufficient under Bylaw 20, Section 2, and Robert’s Rules of Order.
The Judicial Committee found that the October email, sent via the party’s Business List, reached only a small percentage of Central Committee members. Based on a September membership report listing 528 Central Committee members, the committee estimated that just 17% of members were reached. Additionally, the Judicial Committee emphasized that all Central Committee members are defined as full members under party bylaws and are therefore entitled to proper notification.
“Per the Secretary’s September membership report (which would presumably be the number of members at the time notification should have been sent), there were 528 Central Committee members. The notification sent on October 21, 2024, to the email group noted above has 90 members who may or may not be central committee members. But if we accept that all 90 members were Central Committee members, that would only be 17% of the total number of Central Committee members, which would not meet the notification requirement,” the Judicial Committee wrote in its report.
As a result, the Judicial Committee nullified the previously scheduled February convention dates. The Executive Committee is now required to select new dates and issue a corrected notice to all members. The committee also suggested notifying individuals whose memberships had lapsed to encourage renewals, though this was presented as a recommendation rather than an obligation.
To prevent further confusion, the Judicial Committee called for the removal of outdated convention information from the party’s website. As of this article’s publication, the old details remain listed but do not include meeting documents or an agenda.
“Under the bylaws of the Libertarian Party of California, all dues-paying supporters of The LPC are ‘Central Committee’ members.”
I don’t think that’s entirely correct. Bylaw 6 stipulates who are ELIGIBLE to be members of the central committee, but that doesn’t automatically mean that they ARE, right?
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They must 1) reside in California (except if they are lifetime members of the central committee), 2) certify that they oppose the initiation of force as a means of achieving political or social goals, 3) be registered with the LP, and 4) either a) hold elected public office in California (NOT including county executive committee membership), or b) pay the dues charged by the executive committee.
And they may NOT be registered with any other political party*, nor hold office in any other party.
The bylaw also provides for “associate, non-voting” memberships, for those who are ineligible or simply don’t wish to be central committee members.
In addition, provision is made for 1) voluntary termination of central committee membership, 2) termination for failure to pay dues, 3) termination due to no longer meeting the requirements above, 4) termination for “involving, or threatening to involve, legal authorities in any non-civil dispute against the Party or one of its affiliates”, 5) termination as a result of outstanding debts to the party for more than 90 days.
Those who got booted out of the central committee as a result of 1 or 2, cannot rejoin the central committee again until they have been “associate, non-voting” members for at least twelve consecutive months, except by a majority vote of either the executive committee or of the central committee delegates present and voting at a convention.
This does not apply to those booted out as a result of 3-5, who cannot be reinstated to the central committee full-stop**.
* A very silly rule indeed. But does anyone actually ever bother to check, let alone enforce this requirement? I doubt it.
** Seems a bit extreme in the case of 3, and perhaps some instances of 5, to me.
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All in all, there seems to be an awful lot of scope for dues-paying supporters of the LPCA not being members of the central committee, even those who want to be.
Nonetheless, there were indeed supposedly more than one-thousand central committee members from December 2019 to June 2020 and from August 2020 to January 2021.
“Per the Secretary’s September membership report (which would presumably be the number of members at the time notification should have been sent), there were 528 Central Committee members. ”
Under the bylaws of the Libertarian Party of California, all dues-paying supporters of The LPC are “Central Committee” members. In the past, there have been thousands of dues-paying Central Committee members of the Libertarian Party of California.
Anyone who supported the Mises Caucus in hopes of growing The Libertarian Party clearly bet on the wrong horse – or the wrong part of the horse.