By Martin Finucane, Associated Press, 10/03/00
BOSTON -- The state's Libertarian Party lost an 11th-hour legal effort to force organizers of the first presidential debate to include their candidate in Tuesday night's event.
Suffolk Superior Court Judge Gordon Doerfer said the Libertarians, who filed their lawsuit Tuesday, waited too long to ask a court to order that candidate Harry Browne be allowed to participate.
"The plaintiffs offered no reason for waiting until the day of the debate to request a court order allowing them to participate," Doerfer said. "In short, the plaintiffs have slept on their rights by waiting until the last minute to seek relief and are not entitled to make such belated claims."
The party said in its lawsuit that Browne should be allowed to participate because the Libertarian party is one of three officially recognized in the state, and because the Legislature spent $900,000 of state taxpayer money to help defray the costs of hosting the debate.
The Libertarians wanted the judge to either allow Brown to participate -- even if that only meant making a statement -- or to force the return of the public money.
The judge said an interruption at this late hour would cause harm to the public's right to the important information the debate will provide.
"The plaintiffs' right to present their views and support their candidate do not give them a legal right to be heard in every forum or on every occasion at which rival candidates are speaking," the judge said.
The Libertarians said they were disappointed.
"We have a case where Democratic and Republican officeholders have used the power of their offices to provide money for a debate that only includes Democrats and Republicans," said Libertarian party chairman Elias Israel. "We think that's wrong. We're disappointed the judge didn't see it that way."
Assistant Attorney General Peter Sacks had no immediate comment. But the judge basically adopted his argument; that Libertarians knew for weeks Browne was not invited.
"If they had been serious about this issue, they should have come forward earlier," Sacks said during a Tuesday hearing. "To try to change that now would be very difficult and would risk introducing technical problems."
The bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which organized the debate, required candidates to win at least 15 percent of a national poll to participate in the debate. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader and Reform party candidate Pat Buchanan also fell far short.
