The most significant dean the UO Law School ever had was Wayne Morse in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Morse also served Oregon several terms as U.S. senator. As I know from being a longtime member (now retired) of the Morse Corporation Board, his prime loyalty was to the Constitution. So it’s disturbing that actions of the University’s Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics should not fully reflect Morse’s constitutional values at a time when they are seriously threatened.
That problem is rare. But it is there for everyone to see in the spring issue of the Wayne Morse Independent, published by the Center. It leaves readers with a vacuum in the most important area that would occupy Morse were he with us today: repeated attacks on the Constitution by the current administration in Washington, D.C.
Though we hear about that from only a rare few, it would have dominated his actions. We could hope the holder of the 2008-09 Morse Chair, Mark Graber of the University of Maryland might focus on the issue during his time with us in the fall. But a review of his schedule as it appears in the Independent suggests it is unlikely. Instead the Center reveals it is out of touch with the tragic reality of our times by choosing not to program any item that confronts it.
Graber will teach courses on Judicial Review and Democracy, and give a public talk Oct. 2 on “Polarization and the Courts.” The subjects are in tune with the two-year Center theme, “Democracy and Citizenship in the 21st Century.” But they ignore what Morse would have demanded: a review of current threats to the Constitution.
This two-year series reflects just as much avoidance behavior as last year, when the featured subjects included “Detentions at Guantanamo Bay,” “Immigration and Citizenship” and “Current Political Developments in Latin America.” Morse is remembered for speaking out with courage on vital issues of his time, no matter the personal cost. He was elected to the Senate as a Republican, then as a Democrat. But it was when he was elected as an Independent that his political identity was most fully realized.
The Center ignores that identity, and is diminished when it chooses to minimize an important issue such as the government’s persistent attack on the Constitution and on citizens’ rights. It does not absolve itself, but reinforces its failure with a column in the Independent that quotes Morse on the “separation of power” in government, while ignoring that question in its programming. I admire Morse, and the goals the Center is committed to advancing. For that reason I can’t stay silent when a major act of omission diminishes much of the good the Center achieves.
George Beres managed the UO Speakers Bureau before retiring in 1987. For 12 years, he was a member of the Wayne Morse Corporation Board