James A. Redden
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| James A. Redden | |
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| In office 1980 – present1 |
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| In office January 3, 1977 – March 24, 1980 |
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| Preceded by | Lee Johnson (R) |
| Succeeded by | James M. Brown (D) |
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| In office January 1, 1973 – January 3, 1977 |
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| Preceded by | Robert W. Straub |
| Succeeded by | Clay Myers |
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| Born | March 13, 1929 Springfield, Massachusetts, USA |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Joan Johnson Redden |
| Children | James Redden, journalist William Redden, attorney |
| Residence | Beaverton, Oregon, USA |
| Occupation | Attorney |
| 1Senior Judge since | |
James Anthony "Jim" Redden Jr. (born 1929) is a Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon.[1] Before appointment to the bench, he was a trial attorney, and a career Democratic politician, serving as a legislator and in two of the state's constitutional offices, Treasurer[2] and Attorney General.[3] As a politician, he was a key figure in some of Oregon's most groundbreaking legislative initiatives, including brokering the deal which brought passage of the state's 1967 public beach access law.[1] Many of the cases he has heard in his quarter of a century on the federal bench gained national attention, often sparking controversy, including his dismissal of the 1975 explosives charges against American Indian Movement leader Dennis Banks,[4] and his more recent 2005 and 2006 decisions halting the Bush administration's plans to reduce spillway flows on the Columbia and Snake rivers, which environmentalists and indigenous tribes have criticized as devastating to the salmon runs.[5][6][7] The federal courthouse in Medford, Oregon, where he practiced law for 17 years,[1] was renamed by an Act of Congress in his honor.[8] He and his wife, Joan, make their home in Beaverton, Oregon and have two adult sons: James, a journalist, and William, a public defender.
[edit] Early life
During the difficult days of the Great Depression, Jim Redden was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, the third child of James A. Redden, Sr., a dentist, and his wife, Alma. He spent his early childhood in their home on Bronson Terrace at the Eastern edge of Forest Park, where for a time, his father also maintained his dental office[9]
During what he would later describe as a "mediocre" high school career,[10] Redden enlisted in the Army in 1946,[11] as World War II was coming to an end, serving two years as a Private in occupied Japan.[1] He was assigned as a hospital medic, and witnessed the aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima firsthand.[1]
After discharge from the service, he married his high school sweetheart, Joan Johnson.[1]he took several low-end jobs, including working coding survey sheets for the Gillette Razor Company,[10] but managed not only to earn a belated high school diploma, but went on to Boston College and its School of Law, graduating with an LL.B. in 1954, and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar the same year. 1954 was also the year he married his highschool sweetheart, Joan Johnson.[1]
After engaging in the private practice of law in Massachusetts for only a year, the young attorney moved with his wife and young sons to Portland, Oregon in 1955 to take a position with a title insurance company. His work as a title examiner lasted only one year, followed by an equally brief tenure as a claims adjuster for Allstate Insurance Company.[11]Neither position satisfied what he would later describe as a growing passion for the law, and particularly as it plays out in the courtroom.[1]
Redden and his family would make their home for the next seventeen years in Medford, Oregon, where he built a successful law practice. He became deeply immersed in politics, quickly becoming regarded as one of the Democratic Party's "rising stars."[1]
[edit] Legislative career
It was as a favor to a friend seeking a challenger to the incumbent Republican for the 19th District in the Oregon House of Representatives, that Redden entered his first political race in 1962.[7]
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[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Rojas-Burke, Joe. "James A. Redden: An amiable Judge, A hard line on salmon", The Oregonian, July 11, 2005, pp. A1.
- ^ Treasurers of Oregon (HTML). Oregon Blue Book. Oregon Secretary of State (2006).
- ^ Attorneys General of Oregon (HTML). Oregon Blue Book. Oregon Secretary of State (2006).
- ^ "Dismissal of charge against Indian leader upheld", New York Times, (UPI), September 2, 1984, pp. A28.
- ^ Milstein, Michael. "U.S. offers new fish tactics for Columbia basin", The Oregonian, November 25, 2005, pp. B1.
- ^ Harden, Blaine. "Bush Policy Irks Judges in West; Rulings Criticize Agencies for Not Protecting the Environment", Washington Post, November 25, 2005, pp. A1.
- ^ a b Barnard, Jeff. "Judge: "Follow the Law, Save the Salmon"", The Columbian, February 19, 2006, pp. A1.
- ^ First introduced as S.1875 and enacted as amendment to Pub.L. 104-208
- ^ United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts; Roll 911; p. 5A; E.D. 83; Image 191.0.
- ^ a b Painter, Jr., John. "3 judges take overdue break to note decade together on federal bench", The Oregonian, April 7, 1990, pp. B4.
- ^ a b "James Anthony Redden." Marquis Who's WhoTM. Marquis Who's Who, 2006. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2006. [1] Retrieved: 2006-12-07
| Preceded by Lee Johnson |
Oregon Attorney General 1977 – 1980 |
Succeeded by James M. Brown |
| Preceded by Robert W. Straub |
Oregon State Treasurer 1973 – 1997 |
Succeeded by Clay Myers |
