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…
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…
Department of Follow-Through: “Digitizing the Oregon Story”
By Adair Law In late spring 2019, the USDCHS was delighted to learn of the Oregon Historical Society’s receipt of a generous Library Services and Technology Act grant, funded through the State Library of Oregon’s Library Support and Development Services. The full title of the grant request “Digitizing the Oregon Story: Creating Access to Significant Legal and Political Oral Histories” gives the broad brushstrokes of what they wanted to accomplish. Starting on July 1 2019, OHS set to the task of digitizing 1825 hours of now obsolescent recording format to preserve information from 215 oral history interviews. Of those oral histories, over 60 came from the USDCHS Oral History…
Justice Hans A. Linde (1924-2020)
The USDCHS notes with sadness the passing of an Oregon legal giant, Oregon Supreme Court Justice Hans A. Linde. We direct you to these articles for more information about his place in Oregon and national history. We are grateful to have a 2019 picnic memory captured. The picnic theme celebrated the men and women who have served on Oregon’s highest court. 2019 was the first year that women justices formed the majority of the Oregon Supreme Court. In a touching moment, to ensure a group photograph that included then-95-year-old Oregon Supreme Court Justice Hans Linde, the gathering of decades-spanning former and current Oregon Supreme Court justices moved with one accord…