Albin Walter Norblad III (born 1939) is an attorney in the U.S. state of Oregon, and a sitting judge of the Oregon Circuit Court for the 3rd judicial district, in Marion County at Salem. His current term expires January 1, 2013.[1] [2] He bears the name of his father, A. Walter Norblad, and his grandfather, A. W. Norblad, both prominent Oregon attorneys and politicians.
Norblad holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Oregon and a law degree from the Willamette University College of Law. Before becoming a state court judge, he had served as a municipal court judge and a deputy district attorney.[3]
His lengthy career as a jurist has included a number of controversial and high profile cases, including a 1994 decision upholding a state law banning enforcement of local anti-gay rights ordinances. As a juvenile court judge during the 1970s, Norblad made hundreds of unpopular decisions, reportedly sending more youths to MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility than any other judge in the state.[3]
The judge was disciplined by the Oregon Commission on Judicial Fitness and Disability in 2002 with a thirty-day suspension following a drunk driving incident, an action which was upheld on appeal to the state Supreme Court. [4]