Please note: our form does not accept video submissions or files larger than 200MB. However, we would love to feature videos on Judge Charles C. Lovell’s tribute page. If you have a video or a larger file you would like to share, you can submit it here! Photos and written tributes can be uploaded below.
Please note: our form does not accept video submissions or files larger than 200MB. However, we would love to feature videos on Judge Raymond C. Fisher’s tribute page. If you have a video or a larger file you would like to share, you can submit it here! Photos and written tributes can be uploaded below.
The first stop on our tour is the Eastern District of Washington. With three lovely courthouses – one in Spokane; one in Yakima; and one in Richland, there is so much to see, as each Courthouse building is not only architecturally and historically interesting on its own, but the lobby of each Courthouse also contains beautifully designed historical displays!
An outgrowth of their extensive public civics outreach efforts, the EDWA Court began planning these Exhibits in 2014. They first created an Historical Exhibit Committee, made up of district and bankruptcy judges, court unit executives, the Ninth Circuit Librarian, General Services Administration (GSA) facilities managers, and the GSA historian. The Committee worked diligently in partnership with the exhibit design firm, Sea Reach Ltd. of Sheridan, Oregon, using a “places, cases, and faces” approach to historical education for the displays.
The resulting Exhibits, first displayed in 2017, address the formation of the District, its U.S. courthouse locations, the judges who have served since its formation, and cases that have had significant impact on both the district and federal law, including Alvarez et al. v. IBP (1999), (addressing worker compensation for time required to don and doff required extensive protective gear by slaughterhouse and meat packing plant workers) and In re Washington State Apple Advertising Commission (2003), (do fees paid to create ad campaigns promoting the state’s apple crop effectively force members to advertise for their competitors, thus infringing on their free speech rights). Perhaps no case on the Exhibits reflects greater impact on Eastern Washington residents than In re Hanford Nuclear Reservation (1991). As a result of this case, in response to citizen requests, the government released previously classified information, which included the fact that during the 1940’s and early 1950’s, the stacks of the Hanford reactors had emitted radioactive chemicals into the air impacting Eastern Washington residents to this day.
The remarkable history and national impact of the Eastern District does not stop at case law. Notably, the William O. Douglas Courthouse in Yakima takes its names from the longest serving Supreme Court justice who grew up in Yakima, was the valedictorian at Yakima High School, and went on to attend Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA. Douglas said that his summer working in a cherry orchard in Eastern Washington later inspired him to pursue his legal career after having seen the challenges and inequities migrant workers faced working in the fields.
Watch our program on “The Environmental Legacy of William O. Douglas”!The Eastern District’s three courthouses are beautiful and worth an in-person visit once safety guidelines allow.
For more information about the Courthouses and their Historical Exhibits, read YOU ARE (or were) HERE: Eastern District of Washington Unveils Historical Displays by Renee McFarland and Sean McAvoy
One Mom can make all the difference! As we wind down Women’s History Month, we cannot forget the mother who was responsible for the passage of the 19th Amendment.
By the summer of 1920, 35 states had ratified the 19th Amendment, bringing it one vote short of the required 36. It all came down to Tennessee and thousands of pro- and anti-suffrage activists had descended on Nashville where weeks of intense lobbying and debate went on in the Tennessee legislature. It seemed certain that the final roll call on a motion to table the amendment would maintain the deadlock, ringing the death knell for the 19th Amendment.
But that morning, the youngest legislator, 24 year-old Harry Burn received a note from his mother, Phoebe Ensminger Burn, saying, “Hurrah, and vote for suffrage!” and imploring her son to “be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the ‘rat’ in ratification.” And thus, Burn changed his stance to an “aye” vote and the 19th amendment was ratified!
Read the full story here.
Learn more about the Suffrage Movement generally from Ninth Circuit Judge Margaret McKeown’s conversation with Elaine Weiss, author of The Woman’s Hour. Watch the The Great Unfinished Fight: A Conversation on the History and Legacy of the 19th Amendment on the ABA’s 19th Amendment Commission website.
The only thing better than a Virtual Trivia Night with friends, is one where you also have a great bucket filled with microbrews and gourmet snacks, just for you! Now that’s a party!!! Thanks to our VERY GENEROUS sponsors, you can have a $58 value Brew/Snack bucket for only $15 delivered to your door, right in time to chill for Trivia Night.
Great question! Order a discounted Craft Brew and Gourmet Bucket below!
Join fellow lawyer representatives from around the Ninth Circuit,
for a fun evening of trivia, magic, refreshments, and prizes!
Special Guest Emcees: Judge Virginia Phillips and Judge Robert Lasnik!
TWO GREAT REGISTRATION OPTIONS:
(1) Gather a team of up to 10 folks and register by selecting the “I am signing up as a team” option below! If you don’t have 10 members in your team, you can either add more later, or we will find you some friends!
(2) Don’t have a team? Not to worry! Sign up as an individual and we will find the perfect team for you!
Thanks to our sponsors:
By the end of 1914 almost every Western state and territory had enfranchised its female citizens, creating a new voting population of 4 million women: a remarkable achievement! This stands in profound contrast to the East, where few women voted until after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment (1920), and to the South, where the disfranchisement of African American men was widespread.
Read more about the Women’s Vote by State:
Wyoming California Oregon Alaska Arizona IdahoRead more about the topic in our most recent exhibit, and in our journal, Western Legal History!
View the Exhibit! Read our Western Legal History issue!
To learn more about the NJCHS and our upcoming programs, join our mailing list, or better yet, become a member!
To learn more about the NJCHS and our upcoming programs, join our mailing list, or better yet, become a member!
We know him as the venerable Ninth Circuit Senior Judge Carlos Bea, but did you know: he played basketball for Cuba in the Olympics; in his youth he was under threat of deportation from the U.S.; and his brother paid him for some legal work with a Rolls Royce Convertible. These are just some of the fascinating facts about Judge Bea which are part of his oral history. Learn more about Judge Bea, his life, his legal and judicial career, and his judicial philosophy in his oral history, as interviewed by Ben Feuer, Esq.
Read Judge Bea’s Oral History Here!To learn more about the NJCHS and our upcoming programs, join our mailing list, or better yet, become a member!
