Oregon Supreme Court
| Oregon Supreme Court | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Established | 1841 |
| Location | Salem, Oregon |
| Composition method | Non-partisan |
| Authorized by | Oregon Constitution |
| Judge term length | 6 years |
| Website | Official site |
| Chief Justice | |
| Currently | Paul De Muniz |
| Since | 2006 |
| Jurist term ends | 2013 |
The Oregon Supreme Court is the highest state court in the U.S. state of Oregon. The only court that may reverse or modify a decision of the Oregon Supreme Court is the Supreme Court of the United States.[1] The OSC holds court at the Supreme Court building in Salem, Oregon near the capitol building on State Street.
Election
The court has seven elected justices, each of whom serves a six-year term after winning a nonpartisan election. They choose one of their own to serve a six-year term as Chief Justice. Justices, like other Oregon state court judges, must be United States citizens, Oregon residents for at least three years, and lawyers admitted to practice in Oregon. When a state court judge retires, resigns, or dies before completing a term, the Governor may appoint another qualified person to the position. To keep that position, the appointed person must run for election for a full six-year term at the next general election. On occasion, a judge will leave office at the end of a term, in which case a general election determines their replacement.[1]
Administrative
The Chief Justice serves as administrative head of the Oregon Department of Justice.[1] In that role, he or she supervises the Oregon Court of Appeals, Oregon's circuit courts, and the Oregon Tax Court. The Chief Justice is also responsible for the judicial department’s budget, appointing chief judges of the lower courts, and making any regulations and rules of the courts.[1]
The Court can also appoint retired judges, lawyers, and other judges to serve temporarily as judges at any level in Oregon.[1] The state supreme court also is responsible for admitting new lawyers to practice in Oregon, disciplining attorneys and judges in the state, and appointing members to the Board of Bar Examiners.[1]
Powers & jurisdiction
The powers of the OSC derive from the Oregon Constitution’s Article VII.[1] Like other supreme courts in the United States, the Oregon Supreme Court acts primarily as a court of appeals. They choose cases that are of legal significance or to unify lower court decisions.[1] The state supreme court has original jurisdiction in legal disciplinary areas, writs of mandamus, writs quo warranto, and writs of habeas corpus.[1] The court also reviews death penalty cases, tax court appeals, reapportionment of legislative districts, and challenges to ballot measure titles.[1]
History
The Oregon Supreme Court traces its roots back to the early settlement period of Oregon Country. In 1841 pioneer Ewing Young died without an heir or will in the unorganized lands of what are now the states of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.[2] In February of that year settlers met at Champoeg to discuss the creation of a government, including a judiciary to deal with the execution of Young’s estate.[2] Although the overall government plans fell through, the group of pioneers and mountain men did elect a supreme judge to exercise probate powers.[2] The first judge was Dr. Ira L. Babcock, serving from Feb. 18, 1841-May 1, 1843.[3] Other judges were appointed and elected during the pre-territory period over the next seven years. In 1848, when the Oregon Territory was created by Congress, William P. Bryant was appointed as the first judge of the Oregon Supreme Court.[3] Justices in the territorial period were appointed by the President of the United States.[3]
In those early days of the court, the justices would “ride circuit” in addition to their appellate court functions. Riding circuit involved acting as appeals court judges around the state in addition to the supreme court functions of ultimate appeal, a common practice in early American courts.[4] Beginning with statehood in 1859, the court had just four justices, one for each judicial district in the state.[5] Each justice was assigned one district, and then all justices would gather and set intervals to confer on appeals.[5] On appeals, the justice who presided over the lower court case would not participate in the proceedings.[5] Then in 1862 the court was expanded to five justices with the addition of a fifth judicial district. With the creation of a Court of Appeals and separate Supreme Court in 1878, riding circuit was abandoned[3] and the Supreme Court reduced to three members.[5] Governor Thayer then appointed James K. Kelly, Reuben P. Boise, and Paine Page Prim to the court as temporary justices until elections could be held.
In 1906 the Oregon court upheld a maximum hour law for women in State v. Muller, 48 Or. 252, 85 P. 855 (1906). Due partly to a brief by future U.S. Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Oregon law in Muller v. Oregon, 208 U.S. 412 (1908) despite ruling in 1905 in Lochner v. New York that a maximum hour law for bakers was unconstitutional.[6] Then in 1910, the state legislature expanded the court back to five justices, and lastly, in 1913 the court expanded to the current seven justices.[3]
The next important case came in 1935 when the state’s top court ruled in State v. De Jonge, 152 Or. 315, 51 P.2d 674 (1935) that the 14th Amendment did not protect Communist Party organizers from prosecution under Oregon’s criminal syndicate law. However, the U.S. Supreme Court would over turn this decision in DeJonge v. Oregon, 299 U.S. 353 (1937). Another important case came in 1960 as the Oregon court ruled against the United States government in State Land Board v. United States, 222 Or. 40, 352 P.2d 539 (1960). In that case the court ruled that state estate laws trumped a federal statute concerning the property of U.S. Veterans who died at Veterans Administration hospitals without a valid will. The U.S. Supreme Court then overturned the Oregon Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Oregon, 366 U. S. 643 (1961).[7]
On the administrative end of the court, in 1981 the Oregon Legislature and justice Arno Denecke reformed the chief justice position from a simple head of the court in title only, to the administrative head of the entire Oregon judicial system.[8] The following year, 1982, the court received its first female member when Governor Vic Atiyeh appointed Betty Roberts as an associate justice.[9] Then from 1991 to 2005 Wallace P. Carson, Jr. served as chief justice of the court for a record 14 years.[8]
The next landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court involving the Oregon Supreme Court was Dolan v. City of Tigard, 512 U.S. 374 (1994). In that land use case the Oregon court found the requirements placed on the business owner as conditions to approve an expansion were not a taking under the United States Constitution’s takings clause.[10] However, the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed and overturned the Oregon court. Then the Oregon court ruled in February of 2006 that Oregon’s land use law, Measure 37, was constitutional. MacPherson v. Department of Administrative Services, 340 Or. 117, 130 P.3d 308 (2006) allowed people to make claims against the government forcing the government to either pay compensation when land use regulations reduced the value of a property owners land or waive the regulation.[11]
Current justices
| Title | Name | Joined the Court | Current Term Ends | Law School Graduated From |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chief Justice | Paul De Muniz | 2001 | 2013 | Willamette University College of Law |
| Associate Justice | W. Michael Gillette | 1986 | 2011 | Harvard Law School |
| Associate Justice | Robert D. Durham | 1994 | 2013 | University of Santa Clara School of Law |
| Associate Justice | Thomas A. Balmer | 2001 | 2009 | University of Chicago Law School |
| Associate Justice | Rives Kistler | 2003 | 2011 | Georgetown University Law Center |
| Associate Justice | Martha Lee Walters | 2006 | 2009 | University of Oregon School of Law |
| Associate Justice | Virginia Linder | 2007 | 2013 | Willamette University College of Law |
Notable former justices
- Justice Alfred Goodwin (1960-1969)
- Justice Ted Kulongoski (1996-2001)
- Justice Hans A. Linde (1977-1990)
- Justice Wallace McCamant (1917-1918)
- Justice Charles L. McNary (1913-1915)
- Justice Betty Roberts (1982-1986)
- Justice Riley E. Stratton (1859-1866)
- Justice Thomas Tongue (1969-1982)[3]
Notable Supreme Court cases
- McLaughlin v. Hoover, 1 Or. 31 (1853) (assumpsit, statute of limitations, repugnancy)
- Danielson v. Roberts, 44 Or. 108, 74 P. 913 (1904) (property law)
- Jackson v. Steinberg, 186 Or. 129, 200 P.2d 376 (1948) (property law)
- Lowe v. City of Eugene, 254 Or. 518, 463 P.2d 360 (1969) (1st Amendment, Skinner Butte)
- Petersen v. Thompson, 264 Or. 516, 506 P.2d 697 (1973) (contract law)
- Ruble Forest Products, Inc. v. Lancer Mobile Homes of Oregon, 269 Or. 315, 524 P.2d 1204 (1974) (contract law)
- Phillips v. Kimwood Machine Company, 269 Or. 485, 525 P.2d 1033 (1974) (torts, product liability)
- Gustafson v. Payless, 269 Or. 354, 525 P.2d 118 (1974) (torts, Malice)
- Southworth v. Oliver, 284 Or. 361, 587 P.2d 994 (1978) (contract law)
- Fazzolari v. Portland School District No. 1J, 303 Or. 1, 734 P.2d 1326 (1987) (torts: negligence)
- Smith v. Employment Div., 307 Or. 68, 763 P.2d 146 (1988) (employment law, constitutional law)
- Oregon v. Guzek, 336 Or. 424, 86 P.3d 1106 (2004) (death penalty)
- MacPherson v. Department of Administrative Services, 340 Or. 117, 130 P.3d 308 (2006) (land use, measure 37)
- Williams v. Philip Morris, Inc., 340 Or. 35, 127 P.3d 1165 (2006) (punitive damages, smoking)
Other notable cases
- Holmes v. Ford, (1853) (slavery)
- Pennoyer v. Neff, 95 U.S. 714, (1877) (US Supreme Court, personal jurisdiction)
List of chief justices
| # | Name[3] | Term[3] |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | William P. Bryant | (1848-1850) |
| 2 | Thomas Nelson | (1850-1853) |
| 3 | George Henry Williams | (1853-1858) |
| 4 | Aaron E. Wait | (1859-1862) |
| 5 | Reuben P. Boise | (1862-1864) |
| 6 | Paine Page Prim | (1864-1866) |
| 7 | Erasmus D. Shattuck | (1866-1867) |
| 5 | Reuben P. Boise | (1867-1870) |
| 6 | Paine Page Prim | (1870-1872) |
| 8 | William W. Upton | (1872-1874) |
| 9 | Benjamin F. Bonham | (1874-1876) |
| 6 | Paine Page Prim | (1876-1878) |
| 10 | James K. Kelly | (1878-1880) |
| 11 | William Paine Lord | (1880-1882) |
| 12 | Edward B. Watson | (1882-1884) |
| 13 | John B. Waldo | (1884-1886) |
| 11 | William Paine Lord | (1886-1888) |
| 14 | William Wallace Thayer | (1888-1890) |
| 15 | Reuben S. Strahan | (1890-1892) |
| 11 | William Paine Lord | (1892-1894) |
| 16 | Robert S. Bean | (1894-1896) |
| 17 | Frank A. Moore | (1896-1898) |
| 18 | Charles E. Wolverton | (1898-1900) |
| 16 | Robert S. Bean | (1900-1902) |
| 17 | Frank A. Moore | (1902-1905) |
| 18 | Charles E. Wolverton | (1905) |
| 16 | Robert S. Bean | (1905-1909) |
| 17 | Frank A. Moore | (1909-1911) |
| 19 | Robert Eakin | (1911-1913) |
| 20 | Thomas A. McBride | (1913-1915) |
| 17 | Frank A. Moore | (1915-1917) |
| 20 | Thomas A. McBride | (1917-1921) |
| 21 | George H. Burnett | (1921-1923) |
| 20 | Thomas A. McBride | (1923-1927) |
| 21 | George H. Burnett | (1927) |
| 22 | John L. Rand | (1927-1929) |
| 23 | Oliver P. Coshow | (1929-1931) |
| 24 | Henry J. Bean | (1931-1933) |
| 22 | John L. Rand | (1933-1935) |
| 25 | James U. Campbell | (1935-1937) |
| 24 | Henry J. Bean | (1937-1939) |
| 22 | John L. Rand | (1939-1941) |
| 26 | Percy R. Kelly | (1941-1943) |
| 27 | John O. Bailey | (1943-1945) |
| 28 | Harry H. Belt | (1945-1947) |
| 29 | George Rossman | (1947-1949) |
| 30 | Hall S. Lusk | (1949-1951) |
| 31 | James T. Brand | (1951-1953) |
| 32 | Earl C. Latourette | (1953-1955) |
| 33 | Harold J. Warner | (1955-1957) |
| 34 | William C. Perry | (1957-1959) |
| 35 | William M. McAllister | (1959-1967) |
| 34 | William C. Perry | (1967-1970) |
| 36 | Kenneth J. O'Connell | (1970-1976) |
| 37 | Arno H. Denecke | (1976-1982) |
| 38 | Berkeley Lent | (1982-1983) |
| 39 | Edwin J. Peterson | (1983-1991) |
| 40 | Wallace P. Carson, Jr. | (1991-2006) |
| 41 | Paul J. De Muniz | (2006-Present) |
External links
- An Introduction to the Courts of Oregon
- Supreme Court Slip Opinions
- MAP Manual: Oregon Supreme Court
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Oregon Supreme Court". Oregon Blue Book. Oregon Secretary of State. Retrieved 2006-12-09.
- ^ a b c Clarke, S.A. (1905). Pioneer Days of Oregon History. J.K. Gill Company.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Oregon Supreme Court Justices". Oregon Blue Book. Oregon Secretary of State. Retrieved 2006-12-09.
- ^ Justices of the United States Supreme Court (explanation of terms)
- ^ a b c d Horner, John B. (1929). Oregon: Her History, Her Great Men, Her Literature. The J.K. Gill Company:Portland, Oregon. 258.
- ^ PBS.org: Louis Dembitz Brandeis
- ^ 366 US 643
- ^ a b Wong, Peter. Chief justice is retiring. Statesman Journal, December 30, 2006.
- ^ ABA: Betty Roberts
- ^ Dolan v. City of Tigard, 317 Or. 110, 854 P.2d 437 (1993)
- ^ Portland Online: City of Portland and Measure 37
Justices of the Oregon Supreme Court | ||
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