Senate Confirms Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai Article III Appointment
By David Fauria The US Senate voted to confirm Judge Mustafa Taher Kasubhai to a lifetime appointment as a District Judge in the US District Court for the District of Oregon on November 19, 2024. President Joe Biden nominated Judge Kasubhai for the seat in September 2023 in anticipation of Judge Ann Aiken assuming senior status at the end of that year. Judge Kasubhai had his nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in early October 2023. Judge Kasubhai’s nomination remained pending when the First Session of the 118th Congress adjourned in January 2024 and was returned to President Biden, who renominated Judge Kasubhai that same month. He was…
Judge Edward Leavy (1929-2023)
We at the USDCHS have lost a great legal mind, a dear friend, and a joyous picnic instigator this week. Judge Edward Leavy passed away on March 13, 2023 after several months of hospice care. He was 93. We were last able to gratefully acknowledge Judge Leavy and the Leavy family at the Annual USDCHS Picnic at the Leavy family hop farm in August 2019, when we raised our voices in heartfelt tribute to Judge Leavy’s 90th birthday. Wonderful details about Judge Leavy and his remarkable career have been captured in his oral history, which can be found here and in this Oregon Benchmarks article (p. 11) talking about the…
White House Appoints U.S. Attorney Natalie Wight to Serve the District of Oregon
By Hon. Stacie F. Beckerman, U.S. Magistrate Judge On September 8, 2022, the U.S. Senate confirmed the White House’s appointment of Natalie Wight as the District of Oregon’s new U.S. Attorney. Chief U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez administered the oath of office to Wight at the U.S. Courthouse surrounded by her colleagues. Wight replaced U.S. Attorney Scott Asphaug, who served in an acting and interim role after former U.S. Attorney Billy Williams resigned in 2021. Wight has served as an attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice since 2003. She has been an Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) in the District of Oregon since 2012, working in both the Criminal…
Oral History: “As many different perspectives as possible”
By Joseph Carlisle The Oral History Committee of the U.S. District Court of Oregon Historical Society embraced another busy and successful year in 2021. Grappling with the challenges of the continuing pandemic, we learned to work through remote means. Special thanks to recent Oral History Committee member Crystal Chase. Our success in 2021 would not have been possible without her contributions. Thanks to the continued generous support of the Attorney Admissions Fund and with the help of Libby Provost at Historical Research Associates, as well as oral historians Greta Wisniewski, Makaela Kroin, and Janice Dilg, we worked on a total of six oral histories. Some oral histories have been in…
Roswell Lamson, Naval Hero and Clerk of the Court: “The People of Oregon Feel Proud to Call You Their Son”
By Richard Botteri When Roswell Lamson was appointed clerk of Oregon’s federal district court in 1877, he had already lived a life story deeply engrained with the state’s and nation’s history. The Oregon Trail. Indian wars. Slavery and secession. The first Oregonian to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy. The Civil War. Recognizing him as one of its best officers in that struggle, the navy named three destroyers for him in the twentieth century. An extraordinary life, largely forgotten now. History, however, is never settled. We study it to confirm the stories we already know, and to uncover the necessary stories yet to be told. Lamson’s story is one of…