Legal Question?

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Mike Albrecht, Jun 5, 2002.

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  1. Mike Albrecht

    Mike Albrecht New Member

    Since the Oregon Student Assistance commission – Office of Degree Authorization’s enacting regulation lists that claiming a degree from an institution not accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education or approved by ODA can be liable for prosecution as a class B misdemeanor under ORS 348.992, are there any reciprocity agreements with other states or the federal government to extend this? In particular, if a case was prosecuted and then appealed to federal courts, and eventually to the supreme court and if the conviction was upheld, would this then make holding such a degree a federal crime?

    Just wondering. :p
     
  2. Nosborne

    Nosborne New Member

    No. Holding an illegal degree in Oregon would still be STATE crime. It could become a federal offense only if Congress decided to make it a federal crime.

    Nosborne, JD
     
  3. Dennis Ruhl

    Dennis Ruhl member

    OREGON

    Oregon's degree legislation is inoperable and, in all liklihood, a prosecution would fail in the courts at some point.

    States must respect other states' legislation. A divorce in Nevada is a divorce in all states despite their short residency period. States, by intruding into other state's jurisdictions, could create chaos.

    A degree legally granted in California is a legal degree despite what Oregon authorities may think.
    Licensure of professions is up to the individual states, so a degree, while legal, may lack utility.

    The law will be in place until somebody gets charged, however I suspect no-one will ever be charged. Oregon gets much more mileage out of having a law they choose not to enforce than one they can't enforce.

    An unaccredited school is unlikely to challenge the law because how much press do they want pointing out that they are unaccredited.
     
  4. Nosborne

    Nosborne New Member

    Mr. Ruhl describes a constitutional doctrine technically referred to as "full faith and credit". FFC is a non trivial analysis; it does not apply to all, or even most, official acts of a state.

    I do not know whether state approval of a degree-granting institution would be an act covered by FFC. I am inclined to think not, but I haven't done the legal analysis.

    Has anyone done the research?

    Nosborne, JD
     
  5. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

    I'm not a lawyer.

    My understanding is that in order to appeal to a federal court. it must be done on federal grounds. For example, it is argued that a state law violates the first amendment. If it is found that the state law does NOT violate the first amendment then it just means that the state law can stand. It does not mean that the state law becomes the law of the land.
     
  6. Nosborne

    Nosborne New Member

    Mr. Huffman is generally correct. Every now and then, however, the U.S. Supreme Court will adopt a radical interpretation of the U.S. Constitution that results in a new federal right, inuring sometimes to individuals and sometimes to state or local government.

    You can never really be sure what they're going to do until they've DONE it.

    Nosborne, JD
     
  7. David Boyd

    David Boyd New Member

    A major California association of schools looked into challenging the Oregon law a couple of years ago.

    The attorneys for the State informally agreed the law was probably unconstitutional but they made it clear that if the law was invalidated by the courts, they would simply push to have a new law enacted with slightly different language.

    Since the litigation could be never ending, no enforcement efforts were being taken, and any new law could be even more damaging for its member schools, the Association chose to take no action.
     
  8. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    What association of California schools was this? Since the schools accredited by recognized accreditors have no problem in Oregon, I assume that this must have been an association of non-accredited schools. So, do CA non-accredited schools have some kind of trade association?
     

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