Oregon Appellate Court Oral Arguments -- Week of September 14

The Oregon Supreme Court has no cases set for oral argument this week

The Oregon Court of Appeals hears oral arguments on 9/21 in the Justice Building and on 9/24 in the Supreme Court Building.

SOLL Search Tips: Looking for a Dictionary?

As you may know, the State Law Library has a number of legal and English language dictionaries available for your reference. We’ve now compiled all our dictionaries into easily sortable lists, so you can see everything that’s available in one place, whether it’s the most recent edition of Black’s Law Dictionary or an “exposition of certaine difficult and obscure words and termes” from 1602. By default, the lists are sorted by title, but you can sort them by year, author, or a number of other facets using the dropdown menu at the top right corner of the results.

Access the list of English language dictionaries here: https://o90009.eos-intl.net/O90009/OPAC/Search/SpecialTitles.aspx?List_Code=48866812&clicked=true&PatronSearches=false

and the list of legal dictionaries here:
https://o90009.eos-intl.net/O90009/OPAC/Search/SpecialTitles.aspx?List_Code=48959736&clicked=true&PatronSearches=false.

Oregon Appellate Court Oral Arguments -- Week of September 14

The Oregon Supreme Court hears five cases set for oral argument September 14th and 15th

• 9/14 9:00 am - Oakmont, LLC v. Department of Revenue - S062342
• 9/14 9:00 am - State of Oregon v. William Michael Althouse - S062909 (A152626)
• 9/15 9:00 am - State of Oregon v. Ema Ramos - S062942 (A150423)
• 9/15 9:00 am - State of Oregon v. Kade William Kirschner - S063069 (A154602)
• 9/15 9:00 am - Rosa Aurelia Palacios Espinoza v. Evergreen Helicopters, Inc. - S062903 (A147028)
• 9/15 1:00 pm - State of Oregon v. Linda Jean Bonilla - S062962 (A153808)

The Oregon Court of Appeals hears oral arguments on 9/15 in the Justice Building and on 9/17 in the Supreme Court Building.

Oregon Appellate Court Oral Arguments -- Week of September 10th

Happy Labor Day!

The Oregon Supreme Court hears four cases set for oral argument September 10th.  

• 9/10 9:00 am - Fountaincourt Homeowners Association v. FountainCourt Development, LLC - S062691 (A147420)
• 9/10 9:00 am - State of Oregon v. Sunie Shawn Waterhouse - S062799 (A153037)
• 9/10 1:30 pm - J. Michael Goodwin v. Kingsmen Plastering, Inc. - S062925 (A151821)
• 9/10 1:30 pm - Casey J. Deckard v. Diana L. Bunch - S062948 (A151792)

The Oregon Court of Appeals hears oral arguments on 9/10 in the Justice Building and on 9/11 in the Supreme Court Building.

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/