James A. Redden

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This article is about the U.S. District Judge in Oregon. A different Oregon resident named Jim Redden was the pubisher of PDXS and is a reporter for the Portland Tribune.
James A. Redden
In office
1980 – present1
In office
January 3, 1977 – March 24, 1980
Preceded by Lee Johnson (R)
Succeeded by James M. Brown (D)
In office
January 1, 1973 – January 3, 1977
Preceded by Robert W. Straub
Succeeded by Clay Myers
Born March 13, 1929 (1929-03-13) (age 79)
Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political party Democratic
Spouse Joan Johnson Redden
Children James Redden, journalist
William Redden, attorney
Residence Beaverton, Oregon, U.S.
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 guns and ammunition 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, flows 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.

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[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 PFC 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, in 1951,[1]and 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.[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 the Oregon State Bar exam and 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] He won the race, and served for six years in the House, becoming the party Minority Leader in 1967.[12]

[edit] Judicial career

Since 2003, Redden has emerged as a central figure in the tension between industry and environmental concerns about the Hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River. He has rejected two management plans advanced by the federal government of the United States, on the grounds that they fail to protect various species of salmon, as required by the Endangered Species Act, and has suggested that if the Bush administration fails to adequately address the salmon issue, management of the dams could fall to the courts.[13]

[edit] References

  1. ^ 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. 
  2. ^ Treasurers of Oregon (HTML). Oregon Blue Book. Oregon Secretary of State (2006).
  3. ^ Attorneys General of Oregon (HTML). Oregon Blue Book. Oregon Secretary of State (2006).
  4. ^ "Dismissal of charge against Indian leader upheld", New York Times, (UPI), September 2, 1984, pp. A28. 
  5. ^ Milstein, Michael. "U.S. offers new fish tactics for Columbia basin", The Oregonian, November 25, 2005, pp. B1. 
  6. ^ Harden, Blaine. "Bush Policy Irks Judges in West; Rulings Criticize Agencies for Not Protecting the Environment", Washington Post, November 25, 2005, pp. A1. 
  7. ^ a b Barnard, Jeff. "Judge: "Follow the Law, Save the Salmon"", The Columbian, February 19, 2006, pp. A1. 
  8. ^ First introduced as S.1875 and enacted as amendment to Pub.L. 104-208
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ a b Painter, Jr., John. "3 judges take overdue break to note decade together on federal bench", The Oregonian, April 7, 1990, pp. B4. 
  11. ^ 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
  12. ^ Van Meter, Heather. "Judges Helen Frye, Owen Panner and James Redden" (PDF), Oregon Benchmarks, The U.S. District Court of Oregon Historical Society, fall 2005. Retrieved on 2007-06-06. 
  13. ^ Milstein, Michael. "Judge rips latest plan to help salmon", The Oregonian, December 11, 2007. 
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