Oregon Appellate Court Oral Arguments -- Week of August 31st

The are no oral arguments before the Oregon Supreme Court this week. 

The Oregon Court of Appeals has a full docket of oral arguments this week from September 1st to the 3rd.

Women's Equality Day: Women's Suffrage in Oregon

Today, we celebrate 95 years since the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which extended the right of suffrage to American women. Here in Oregon, women actually won the right to vote eight years earlier in 1912 – after five previous attempts, more than any other state!

The above image is from the voter’s information pamphlet for the general election of 1912. You probably received a similar pamphlet in the mail during the last election, outlining the pros and cons of today’s issues and giving you more information about the candidates. The State of Oregon Law Library has a collection of these voter pamphlets going all the way back to 1902, when Oregon adopted the initiative and referendum process. These pamphlets can help shed some light on public sentiment at the time.

“To call a government a democracy when half the population is barred from participation in governmental affairs is an absurdity,” argues the Oregon State Equal Suffrage Association in the 1912 pamphlet’s affirmative argument.

On the other side, the Oregon State Association Opposed to the Extension of the Suffrage to Women argued that “suffrage is to be regarded not as a privilege to be enjoyed, but as a duty to be performed” – a duty that the majority of women didn’t want, notwithstanding the “small minority of the women of the State, who make up in activity what they lack in numbers.” Besides, women’s suffrage had failed on the ballot several times already – hadn’t the voters spoken clearly?

But by 1912, public sentiment was shifting. Washington, California and Idaho had already voted for votes for women. Pro-suffrage activists used grassroots organizing and mass media outreach to make their arguments to voters, and the measure passed by 52 percent.

Learn more about the Oregon women’s suffrage movement at the Oregon Encyclopedia and the Oregon Women’s History Consortium’s Century of Action, or get a national perspective from the National Women’s History Museum. You can also visit us here in Salem to read the 1906, 1908, 1910 and 1912 ballot measures for yourself!

Briefs Nationwide!

Reviewing the parties' briefs is a useful way of gaining addition insight into a judicial opinion. However unlike the opinions briefs are not uniformly published or indexed. 

While finding briefs is more difficult than opinions it is possible. The Yale Law Library has put together a excellent guide to finding state court briefs here:

http://library.law.yale.edu/state-court-records-and-briefs

The United States Supreme court has a page detailing where to find briefs before that court here:

http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/briefsource.aspx

The ABA maintains a fairly good collection of SCOTUS briefs from 2007. However the SCOTUSblog page has the best web interface to find SCOTUS related filings. 

Unfortunately federal appellate briefs are only available through PACER. You can sign up for a paid PACER account to receive 15$ of free usage per quarter. You can then make use of the PACER document sharing collective RECAP. 

Oregon appellate briefs are available for cases since 2007 through the State of Oregon Law Library here:

http://digitallawlibrary.oregon.gov/

 

Oregon Appellate Court Oral Arguments -- Week of August 24th

The are no oral arguments before the Oregon Supreme Court this week. 

The Oregon Court of Appeals has a full docket of oral arguments this week starting on August 26th at 9:00 AM.

SOLL Search Tips: Browse Search

Welcome to SOLL Search Tips, a new occasional series on the State Law Library's catalog of resources. Today, we're highlighting the browse search function.

Browse search is a handy tool in the SOLL catalog that can help you discover resources based on a specific subject. It can even suggest broader, narrower or other related subject areas that might be of interest in our collection. Learn more about how to use Browse Search here: http://soll.libguides.com/guides/SOLLsearching/browse. 

As always, if you need help locating any library resources, please feel free to get in touch!

Carin Yavorcik, Discovery Services Librarian
state.law.library@ojd.state.or.us

Oregon Appellate Court Oral Arguments -- Week of August 17th

The are no oral arguments before the Oregon Supreme Court this week. 

The Oregon Court of Appeals has a full docket of oral arguments this week starting on August 18th at 9:00 AM.

08/18/2015 9:00 AM - Supreme Court Courtroom Supreme Court Courtroom -- Sercombe; Nakamoto; De Muniz A155880 -- State of Oregon v. Michael Francis Watchman A155895 -- State of Oregon v. Matthew Eugene Richards A155928 -- State of Oregon v. Barry Justin Phillips A156055 -- State of Oregon v. Randy Lee Stanfield A156134 -- State of Oregon v. Mark Anthony Dixon A156291 -- State of Oregon v. Uriah Jonathan Gibson A154912 -- State of Oregon v. Glen Junior Couch A155264 -- State of Oregon v. Ramon Albert Padilla A155349 -- State of Oregon v. Stephen Edward Cox, Sr. A155435 -- State of Oregon v. Rianna Kae Orcutt A155597 -- State of Oregon v. Joseph Phillip Hyman A155643 -- State of Oregon v. Keith Allen Evans A155739 -- State of Oregon v. James Scott Johnson A155808 -- State of Oregon v. Felicia Marquez-Garcia A155871 -- State of Oregon v. Stephen Douglas Cannon 08/18/2015 9:01 AM - Supreme Court Courtroom Supreme Court Courtroom -- Sercombe; Nakamoto; De Muniz A155683 -- State of Oregon v. John William Burk A154053 -- State of Oregon v. Donald Lee Cockrell A154933 -- State of Oregon v. George Nick Lammi A155210 -- State of Oregon v. Eugene Adam Jacobs A155734 -- State of Oregon v. Ahad S. Hasan 08/19/2015 9:00 AM - Supreme Court Courtroom Supreme Court Courtroom -- Duncan; DeVore; Flynn A155382 -- State of Oregon v. Ezequiel Rogelio Estrella A155386 -- State of Oregon v. Julie Ann Mitchell A155404 -- State of Oregon v. Adam Francis Anderson A155429 -- State of Oregon v. Raymond Paul Hanson A155509 -- State of Oregon v. Raymond William Huffman A155546 -- State of Oregon v. Michael James Hover A155563 -- State of Oregon v. John David Horton, Jr. A155609 -- State of Oregon v. Marvin Opitz A155611 -- State of Oregon v. Michael Lee Petersen A155649 -- State of Oregon v. Stacy Ann Nutt A155761 -- State of Oregon v. Heather Leann Smith A155787 -- State of Oregon v. Sean Ulysses Dawson A156416 -- State of Oregon v. Charles Eugene McLauchlin, Jr. A152856 -- State of Oregon v. Todd Leon Mulvaine [Submit] A154666 -- State of Oregon v. Russell Allen Baughman, Jr. A155091 -- State of Oregon v. Charles Arnold Mittig A155177 -- State of Oregon v. Michael Sweeney A155403 -- State of Oregon v. Joseph Wayne Kurtz 08/19/2015 9:01 AM - Supreme Court Courtroom Supreme Court Courtroom -- Duncan; DeVore; Flynn A155273 -- State of Oregon v. Shane David Samuel A155307 -- State of Oregon v. Michael Lee Barnes