Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman has responded to news last week of a judge finding the controversial sidewalk obstruction law unconstitutional.
“I think we’re still reviewing that decision and it would be inappropriate for me to comment on the specific case,” Saltzman says. “But in the larger sense, I did support the sidewalk obstruction ordinance, I still think it is a good thing. It’s a well thought-out approach.”
Saltzman also noted that last week’s constitutional ruling runs counter to another, earlier ruling, by a different circuit court judge, saying that the law was both “constitutional” and “reasonable.”
What is a “downtown judge”? I seem to recall someone asking in the last post about this, and no “clarification” happening.
With regard to the question “what is a downtown judge?” Violations of both the Oregon State Criminal Code and the Portland City Code are handled by State Circuit Court Judges who sit at the Multnomah County Courthouse. Unlike many smaller cities, Portland does not have its own municipal court judges, but has opted to have city matters heard in circuit court. Circuit Court Judges are elected every six years. Multnomah County also has what are called pro tem judges who are appointed by the Supreme Court to hear minor criminal matters. Violations of federal law are heard by the Federal Distric Court. Every state has different names for their trial courts, so it can get kind of confusing. Washington, for example, has a District Court for misdemeanors and a Superior Court for felonies. New York, for some strange reason, calls their trial court the Suprmeme Court and their highest court is referred to as their Superior Court.
And in this case the real, appointed and then elected judge decided that the law was unconstitutional. The earlier judge that upheld the ordinance was a “pro tem” (‘for a time’) judge, though strangely that “for a time” has been going for years now. Multnomah County Circuit Court has several of these “fake judges” as many local attorneys and court staff only half-jokingly call them. The pro-tems do the grunt work like arraingnments and traffic court and other boring courts so the real judges can do the trials and important stuff that can’t be trusted to the temps. The pro tems serve at the pleasure of the trial court administrator and presiding judge so I imagine they better tow the line or they might have to go back to the practice of law or actually really get appointed by the governor or run for judge in an election.
Personally I would prefer to have an independently elected official instead of a bureaucrat making a decision in my criminal matters.
Just remember the tally so far:
1 Real Judge = Sit/Lie unconstitutional.
1 Fake Judge = Sit/Lie constitutional.