Michael Seebeck

Running For: Judicial Committee

About Michael Seebeck

Michael Seebeck is currently a member of the National Party Judicial Committee, Chair of the 2024 Platform Committee, member of the 2026 Bylaws and Rules Committee, and member of the Libertarian Party of Alabama Judicial Committee, as well as a Libertarian activist, candidate, and party leader formerly from Colorado and California, currently in Alabama. He is a former Vice-Chair of the Libertarian Party of California, Lights of Liberty Triathlete (3x), and former Media Director of the Libertarian Party of Colorado. He has been a candidate three times, and has chaired various committees for the Libertarian Parties of Alabama, California, and Colorado. He is the co-founder of the Libertarian Transparency Caucus and the founder of the Libertarian Tie-Dye Caucus. He has been in the Libertarian Party since 2000, but canvassed his neighborhood for Ron Paul in 1988 while still a sophomore in high school. He is a member of the National Association of Parliamentarians. He is also a Notary Public in Alabama.

Are you a dues paying, or life, member of the Libertarian Party?

Lifetime Member

What has your activism in the Libertarian Party been like?

You can read my party bio on Lpedia, but in general it’s been a little bit of everything from street activism to candidacy for public office to internal administration/structure/support. About the only thing I haven’t done is be a state Treasurer or state Chair or be on the LNC.

Choose any case that the Judicial Committee has heard in the history of the Libertarian Party, most of which can be found here: LPedia.

What is your opinion of the conclusions of the Judicial Committee in that case?

My opinions from the current term, the busiest in LP history, speak for themselves as being by the book and thoroughly cited thereof, in spite of contrary majority opinions that are decidedly and clearly flawed. I also was on the team that successfully argued the Wrights case in 2009.

However, to answer the question: the Ploeger case in 2012, where the imposition of a convention floor fee was upheld, was wrongly decided. Why? Because the majority and concurring inflammatory anti-povertarian opinions were simply absurd: “The Bylaws neither expressly authorize nor expressly prohibit charging delegates a convention registration fee,…” is a clear indication that had it been authorized, the Bylaws would say as much, just as they do say regarding dues for sustaining membership. RONR 56:68-4, as detailed in the dissent, supports that position: Becoming a delegate is a function of the state affiliates, not a floor fee. Registration is therefore the submission of the delegate lists from the state affiliates per the Bylaws. RONR 56:11 also backs that up: “The composition of bylaws is somewhat different from ordinary expository writing, in that it places greater demand on a “tight” clarity and precision in word choice, sentence structure, and punctuation. In bylaws, every punctuation mark may have an important effect; and what is omitted may carry as much significance as what is included.” Put another way, what is NOT stated and how it is NOT stated is equally important as what is stated and how it is stated. As an aerospace engineer by trade, precision and accuracy are daily requirements in my world. As a software systems engineer, precision and accuracy in processes, especially complex ones of aerospace, are essential. Those skills and attention to detail transfer directly to the work of the Judicial Committee, even if the context and application of Bylaws and Rules is different than satellites and missile defense.

Is there anything else that would make you a good member of the Judicial Committee?

My current written opinions speak for themselves as being directly in line with the Party’s Bylaws and Rules AND Party mission and philosophy as laid out in the Statement of Principles and the Pledge. As a now-regular member of both multiple state and national Bylaws and Platform Committees,, as well as serving multiple state affiliates as their convention and Board parliamentarians, I am extremely well-versed in all of those areas. I am not a member of any caucus except two: the Transparency Caucus, which I co-founded in 2008, and the Tie-Dye Caucus, which is in fun rather than serious politics—we need that lightness to balance the seriousness. Also, I don’t bullshit around. My objective is not power for a clique or caucus or myself. It is not and never has been about me. It is to have the Party be a functioning political machine that works to achieve its goals of implementing the Statement of Principles to achieve Liberty. Libertarianism is a political ideology, sure, but it’s also a philosophy and a lifestyle if one chooses to live it. I so choose and so does my family.