This is Part Two of an article written in honor of Sid Lezak’s receipt of the first posthumous U.S. District Court of Oregon Historical Society’s Lifetime Service Award. Part Two begins with Lezak four years into his tenure as Oregon’s U.S. Attorney, dealing with student protests. Part One ran in Spring 2013. Both articles are based on the oral history conducted by Jack Gore Collins with Sid Lezak in 1988. Unless otherwise noted, quoted material comes from the oral history.  You can find Part One in Newsletters, 2013 Spring. Sid Lezak dealt with his first student protest at the Pioneer Courthouse on a Saturday in February 1965. At that time,…

Justice Clarence Thomas accepted the invitation of the University of Portland’s Garaventa Center for Catholic Intellectual Life and American Culture to appear as their featured guest speaker on September 19, 2013. Justice Thomas sat on stage at a table flanked by Professors Gary Malecha, political science, and Bill Curtis, politics and law, in front of a large crowd in the Chiles Center. Justice Thomas explained that he agreed to visit the University of Portland because it had kept a promise to him to help one of its students whom he had befriended. Justice Thomas said, “There is a special place in my heart for people who keep their word.” He…