Judicial Committee (2020-2022)

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The Judicial Committee is the final avenue of appeal, giving due process beyond the LNC for several enumerated areas of subject matter jurisdiction.

Members

• Tom Arnold
• D Frank Robinson
• Alicia Mattson
• Chuck Moulton
• Mary Ruwart (chair)
• Vermin Supreme
• Jim Turney

Cases

In re: The Suspension of LNC Secretary Caryn Ann Harlos

Background

At the September 4-5, 2021 meeting of the Libertarian National Committee, Caryn Ann Harlos was suspended from her position as Secretary of the national Libertarian Party by a vote of 11-2 with one abstention. Voting "Yes": Erin Adams, Whitney Bilyeu, Laura Ebke, TJ Ferreira, Tim Hagan, Susan Hogarth, Chris Luchini, John Phillips, Richard Longstreth, Valerie Sarwark, and David Sexton. Voting "No": Rich Bowen and Dustin Nanna. Ken Moellman abstained. Absent: Erik Raudsep and Joshua Smith who were both confirmed "no" or "abstain" votes (though as the vote required two-thirds of the entire LNC, rather than two-thirds of those present and voting, it would not have changed the outcome if they were present.) A controversy arose when alternate David Sexton showed up after the departure of Steven Nekhaila who was a confirmed "no" or "abstain" vote without notifying Mr. Nekhaila that he intended to do same. If Mr. Sexton had not appeared, the motion would have failed. Supporters of the motion state that this was perfectly acceptable. Caryn Ann states that it was certainly legal but characterized it as "trickery." Meeting video is located here. Caryn Ann appealed her suspension on the following grounds:

• Failure to provide adequate due process
• Failure to provide evidence of action that rises to the level of a removable offense
• Failure to substantiate allegation that Petitioner violated the Non-Aggression Pledge
• Failure to substantiate allegations that the Petitioner violated the social media policy or the conflict of interest policy in the Policy Manual in effect at the time of the suspension
• Retaliation against a whistleblower
• Dirty hands on the part of the accusers

She has announced she will be running in Reno for either re-election or re-instatement. She also claims she had received more emails in support than anyone else in Party history, claiming the number is over 1,000.

Hearing Date: October 17, 2021

At the hearing, Judicial Committee Chair Mary Ruwart strongly urged the parties to resolve this between themselves prior to a ruling. To that end, immediately after the hearing Caryn Ann Harlos contacted Whitney Bilyeu but did not receive a response. Due to the short time frame, and presuming Ms. Bilyeu was tied up in other matters, Ms. Harlos approached other LNC members, notably Steven Nekhaila to work out proposed language for a compromise.

Request for Settlement Prior to Ruling

Judicial Committee Chair Mary Ruwart with great feeling asked the parties to resolve this between themselves prior to the JC releasing a decision. To that end, Caryn Ann Harlos wrote to Party chair Whitney Bilyeu right as the hearing ended and did not receive a response. She then reached out to Steven Nekhaila, Rich Bowen, Erik Raudsep, Joshua Smith, Dustin Nanna, and Ken Moellman and hammered out a compromise motion which was presented to the LNC. It was ruled out of order multiple times for procedural reasons with people disagreeing on whether or not the reasons were sound or designed to kill the motions. Susan Hogarth raised a point of order the first time the motions were presented but did not re-submit the point of order on subsequent introductions. Caryn Ann Harlos and the LNC sponsors have made it clear that the compromise motions were made due to the Ruwart request and for the good of the Party. Chris Luchini indicated that he would only accept a compromise that involved Harlos resigning and going away, and he would "let" her keep her committee seats. Virtually no one responded positively to that suggestion though those discussions were in private and not on the business discussion list.

You can view the LNC discussion threads with the language of the proposed motions as they evolved and the debates here. The last iteration is waiting full sponsorship. The Judicial Committee has stated it will release its decision on November 13, 2021 if a settlement is not reached by November 12, 2021.

Representing the Petitioner

• DL Cummings
• Jonathan R. Jacobs, PRP, CP
• Caryn Ann Harlos

Representing the LNC

• Whitney Bilyeu
• Chris Luchini
• John Phillips
• Richard Brown. RP
• Richard Longstreth

Filings of Petitioner Caryn Ann Harlos

• Petition for Appeal (info)
• Appeal Witness List (info)
• Notice of Filing Supplement Exhibits (info)
• Reply to Response of Selected LNC Members (info)
• Amended Exhibit List (info)
• Motion to Allow Witnesses (info)
• Notice of Objection (info)
• For Cause Brief (info)
• Notice of Filing Redacted Emails (info)
• Supplemental Brief on Social Media Policy (info)
• Notice of Filing Case Law Regarding "For Cause" (info)
• Expert Opinion on Cause filed by Jonathan M. Jacobs, PRP, CPP (info)
• Expert Opinion on Procedure filed by Jonathan M. Jacobs, PRP, CPP (info)
• Notice of Filing Rebuttal to Claim that Petitioner Refused any Lesser Action (info)

Filings of LNC

• Response to Petition for Appeal (info)
• Memo of Oliver Hall on "For Cause" (info)
• Second Response of LNC to Appeal filed by Matthew Bughman (info)
• Expert of Richard Brown on behalf of LNC (info)
• Letter from Whitney Bilyeu on behalf of LNC (info)

Filings of Amicus Curiae

• Amicus filed by Ken Moellman on behalf of Caryn Ann Harlos (info)
• Amicus filed by Mike Seebeck on behalf of Caryn Ann Harlos (info)
• Amicus filed by Dave Benner on behalf of Caryn Ann Harlos (info)
• Amicus filed by Todd Haggopian on behalf of Caryn Ann Harlos (info)
• Amicus filed by Carol Moore on behalf of LNC (info)
• Amicus filed by J Rob Latham as advisory to Judicial Committee-Neutral (info)
• Amicus filed by Blay Tarnoff on behalf of Caryn Ann Harlos (info)
• Amicus filed by Michael Meehan on behalf of Caryn Ann Harlos (info)
• Amicus filed by Hector Roos on behalf of Caryn Ann Harlos (info)
• Supplemental Amicus filed by Ken Moellman as advisory to Judicial Committee-Neutral/in favor of Caryn Ann Harlos (info)
• Amicus filed by Starchild on behalf of Caryn Ann Harlos (info)

Other Related Documents and Filings

• Letter from Justin O'Donnell to Judicial Committee in support of Caryn Ann Harlos (info)
• Letter from the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire to Judicial Committee in Support of Caryn Ann Harlos (info)
• Resolution of the Libertarian Party of Minnesota of No Confidence in the LNC and in support of Caryn Ann Harlos (info)
• Resolution of the Libertarian Party of Colorado in support of Caryn Ann Harlos (info)
• Email from Bill Shaner in support of Caryn Ann Harlos (info)
• Email from Avens O'Brien at the request of Caryn Ann Harlos regarding Amicus of Carol Moore (info)
• Response of DL Cummins to Comments made by LNC during hearing (info)
• Email of Miguel Gomez on behalf of LNC (info)
• Email from Roland Riemers in support of Caryn Ann Harlos (info)
• Email from Wm Dettmering in support of Caryn Ann Harlos (info)
• Email from Eric Blackwood in support of Caryn Ann Harlos (info)
• Email from Sean Campbell in support of Caryn Ann Harlos (info)
• Email from Bette Rose Ryan in support of LNC (info)
• Censure of Chris Luchini by the Libertarian Party of Colorado related to the suspension of Caryn Ann Harlos (info)

Commentary on Suspension

• Caryn Ann Harlos: (NSFW - Language): Utter Corruption on the Libertarian National Committee: Be in Reno to Take Back the Party -RECEIPTS!
• Caryn Ann Harlos: Let's Examine the LNC Kangaroo Court of a Suspension Motion
• Caryn Ann Harlos: Welp. The LNC Lied to the Judicial Committee
• Caryn Ann Harlos: I lost my JC appeal - some brief words
• Dave Smith: The Railroading of Caryn Ann Harlos
• Former Libertarian Party of Kansas State Chair Ned Kelley: Our Response to CAH's Removal
• Libertarian Dad DL Cummings: The Curious Case Against the LNC Secretary
• Justin O'Donnell: The Arrogance of the LNC
• Steven Nekhaila: Caryn Ann Harlos Removed

Video Extracts

• Advocacy of DL Cummins for Caryn Ann Harlos at Judicial Committee Hearing

Related Documents

• Notice of Suspension prepared by Caryn Ann (info) that she maintains should have been prepared by LNC. In her own words she prepared it in comic sans font to reflect the "clown car circus" that was her suspension
• Facebook post by spouse of Joe Bishop-Henchman which Caryn Ann Harlos alleges is part of proof that June removal action was retaliatory for Henchman's resignation (info)

Decision

• Affirmed 4-2-1. Two dissenting opinions written submitted with majority opinion. All opinions can be found here (info).

Filling of Vacancy

Nominations were opened on November 26, 2021, and the following were nominated:

• Caryn Ann Harlos nominated by Erik Raudsep.
• Shawn Lavasseur nominated by Richard Longstreth.
• Steve Scheetz nominated by John Phillips and David Sexton.
• John Wilford nominated by Laura Ebke and Chris Luchini.
• Tyler Smith nominated by Alex Flores.

John Wilford was elected by a vote of 10-6 with the Chair abstaining.

Voiding of Decision

Harlos' removal was declared null and void by the delegates at the National Convention 2022 due to the denial of her due process rights as an officer which was declared to be a continuing breach of the Party Bylaws and therefore she never ceased to be LNC Secretary.

In re: Petition Initiated by George Phillies

In 2021, George Phillies filed a member petition requesting what appeared to be a declaratory judgment from the Judicial Committee concerning the role of Robert's Rules of Order in relation to the Party Bylaws but was rejected by the Judicial Committee as having no jurisdiction as there was no adverse decision by the LNC which the petitioners sought to appeal. The initial issue appeared to surround whether or not the Vice-Chair would automatically ascend to the position of Chair if the Chair was vacated with George Phillies taking the position that they would not which many stated was contradictory to Robert's Rules of Order (a position ruled on by Vice-Chair Ken Moellman when was appealed and overturned by the LNC in agreement with George Phillies.

In re: Delaware Appeals

See Libertarian Party of Delaware Leadership Controversy 2021 for documents and details.

The final ruling (info) was in favor of the Board chaired by Bill Hinds over that chaired by Will McVay.