On the surface, my native state of Oregon remains the setting of rugged and breathtaking panoramas, the sought-after subject of legendary photographers and painters.
But beneath that physical surface that baptizes the artist’s imagination wages a fierce culture war, the spoils being the character and morés of Oregon’s people. Oregon’s soul as it were. The battle repercussions could shake the nation.
And smack dab in the middle of the battle is Marion County Circuit Court Judge Vance Day, “the subject of an investigation by the state judicial fitness commission in part because of his decision not to officiate weddings for gay couples.”
Perusing the headlines across the nation for September, those stories concerning Judge Day are so patently skewed as to be almost comical.
In that last article, Oregonian Metro Columnist Steve Duin wrote:
Marion County Circuit Judge Vance Day needs to retire with his “deeply-held religious beliefs,” now that the evolving complexity of justice has overwhelmed him.
In the last year, Day has, instead, raised questions about his impartiality, imposed on his colleagues, and laid the groundwork for a fundraising campaign to defend himself against a judicial fitness complaint.
Those choices were set in motion 16 months ago when U.S. District Judge Michael McShane struck down Oregon’s ban on same-sex marriage. Day immediately ordered his staff to funnel gay and lesbian couples seeking a more perfect union to other judges in the Marion County court system. Several months later, Day recalculated and decided to quit officiating marriages altogether.
Day – who attends Morning Star Community Church in Salem – is welcome to such exercise when he’s off the bench. But that faith-based stamp-of-approval is precisely what many couples seek to avoid when they head to the courthouse, rather than the local chapel, to finalize this civil transaction.
Just how many Marion County judges would need to follow Day’s lead, I wonder, before gays and lesbians reached the conclusion that the circuit court is in revolt against the rulings of McShane and the Supreme Court of the United States?
What I would posit of Duin? First, you do realize that SCOTUS is not vested with the power to make law?
And second, a judge is only “…welcome to such exercise [First Amendment rights] when he’s off the bench”? Meaning a sitting judge has no First Amendment rights?
Duin continues:
When former Gov. John Kitzhaber appointed Day to the bench in 2011, Day’s religious views on marriage equality didn’t bring him into conflict with state and federal law.
But the law has changed, and Day, the former head of the Oregon Republican Party, has not evolved with it.
Ahhh. There’s the rub. That, my friends is the “Living Document” school of thought that twists the U.S. Constitution and state constitutions to suit the current whim or degeneracy of society. It would seem that a law that is ever-changing and morphing to the pleasure of those who would otherwise be law-breakers is no law at all.
Those headlines stand as examples of what poses as journalism in America today. Nothing like the old standards established by Walter Williams, founder of the world’s first school of journalism at University of Missouri in 1908. Williams taught would-be-columnists to get out the who, what, why where and how and hold everyone’s feet to the fire.
The dozen or so stories on Judge Day are mostly re-hashing of the Oregonian and Statesman stories, with little or no investigation. So who is Judge Vance Day? What are the allegations? And who or what is the Commission on Judicial Fitness and Disability?
Let’s start at the beginning and navigate the muddied waters of the case.
Vance Day’s mother, Janet Day Brelje
Vance Day is a native Oregonian, born at Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland. Raised in the Portland metro area, Vance was a beloved son and brother (with an older and younger sister). Vance’s mother, Janet, is a lovely woman whose ready smile and quick intellect belie her octogenarian status.
Janet recounted her son’s facile mind and great humor from the youngest age. She particularly remembered that, at age 13, Vance made a heartfelt decision to follow Jesus and give Him his whole life. The stories she told made perfect sense in light of Vance’s will to honor his Savior, whether overtly or in subtle ways. After all…what does it mean to follow Jesus? Jesus himself told a religious leader:
“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.’
“And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30 & 31
The stories of Vance Day’s life paint a picture of a man who habitually lives out , who loves God and people, ALL people.
Vance was a soccer player, Boy Scout (eventually an Eagle Scout, as are his sons), active in Young Life, loved to sail, attended Sunday School and church.
Vance met his bride-to-be Mattie when they were both attending Regent University. He earned his law degree at Willamette University Law School. Willamette was originally established in 1834 by missionary Jason Lee who came to the Oregon Territory to establish a Methodist mission for Native Americans living in the Willamette Valley.
Randy, fellow Willamette law student, friend, and later colleague in the same law firm, related his first meeting with Vance:
“When I first met him I was in the student lounge watching Perry Mason. Vance walked into the room, looked at me and said hello and the first substantive thing he said was “What is your worldview?”’
“I asked him, “What do you mean by that?”’
“He explained to me and that’s how he found out that I was a Christian and that’s how I found out that he was a Christian.’
“He wasn’t afraid to speak out.”
Another anecdote Randy shared which illustrates Vance’s willingness to take charge and make a difference:
“Willamette was founded as a Christian university and the Dean at the time was Catholic. We were graduating and there was no baccalaureate for the law students. Vance said, “Let’s do a baccalaureate!”’
“The Chaplain said, as a religious school we could do that. So they arranged to do a chapel and Judge Otto Skopil delivered the message (Judge Skopil was a Christian).’
V”ance was and is a networker and knows a lot of people…he pulled it together. Vance sang and led the hymn singing — he has a good voice.””
In other ways Vance’s faith affected his law practice. Randy remembers:
“He’s always been a patriot, always conservative, always a Christian and solidly so.’
“The other thing is he did do a lot of pro bono work as a lawyer. He did personal injury and he saw it as a matter of stewardship.’
“He would bring matters of faith into client meetings. For personal injury he would take even small cases, even if he would not make money doing it.”
What I learned from those around Judge Day is not what you will see in most of the Mainstream Media Press.
Vance founded the Marion County Veterans Treatment Court whose mission statement states:
The mission of the Marion County Veterans Treatment Court is to identify veterans within the criminal justice system and honor their sacrifice and service by providing a collaborative, judicially supervised, mentor-oriented treatment regime with the goal of enhancing public safety by stabilizing, habilitating and reintegrating dependence-free veterans back into our community by utilizing federal and community resources.
Day has also been closely associated with and supportive of Veterans, and especially the Band of Brothers veterans, at least one of whom was from Oregon and became Vance’s great friend.
Vance’s son Justin and wife, Mattie
The headlines stress the fact that Vance will not marry same sex couples. There are several charges being brought against Judge Day: from hanging a “picture of Hitler” in the courthouse, to seeing a felon handle a handgun, to collecting monies from other colleagues for artwork in the courthouse. But none of these charges spurred the Oregon Commission of Judicial Fitness to action until they were made aware that the judge would not marry same sex couples.
Each charge has a simple and innocuous explanation, none of which have been detailed in the press.
Also not detailed in the press is the critically important fact that marriage is not a compulsory judicial duty in Oregon, but entirely optional.
In Part 2 of this series I will get into the details of the charges, what ACTUALLY occurred, the truth about the “Hitler picture,” the nature and lack of accountability of the Commission on Judicial Fitness, and what lies ahead on Vance’s (and Mattie’s) legal journey.
The Commission on Judicial Fitness and Disability receives perhaps 150 – 250 complaints per year, and maybe 1 or 2 complaints are escalated to an ethics complaint. And those 1 or 2 complaints might warrant a day-long hearing.
But for Judge Day? The CJFD is allotting 2 weeks beginning Monday, November 9 (excepting Wednesday the 11th, which is the Veterans Day holiday). The hearings commence at 9AM each day at the Capitol Hearing Room 50 November 9 – 13, and at the Department of Transportation Ackerman Conference Room November 16 – 20. These are public hearings, and many friends and supporters of Judge Day will be in attendance, listening and praying.
Also of note, these legal procedures are costly. Vance and Mattie having secured a home equity loan to pay some of the legal fees (which may exceed $250K), but any who would like to support the Judge may do so at DefendJudgeDay.com.
A last thought. When asked if he intends to fight these charges, most of which are baseless or overblown, Vance answered yes. When asked what the core issue is, Vance immediately responded, “This has to do with my not marrying same sex couples.”
Again, remember that performing marriage ceremonies is entirely optional for judges in the state of Oregon, and Judge Day no longer marries ANY couples.
When hinted that he should just quietly resign from his job Vance answered:
“That’s not going to happen. I didn’t take this job because it’s a job, but because it’s a calling. I believe in justice. This is about judicial independence and threatening other judges or people of faith. If that’s where we’re going as a nation, I fear for our future.”
Everyone, every Christian, may have their Esther moment, that point in their life where they know they were put in the position they’re in for “such a time as this.” For this native son, who began life at Good Samaritan Hospital, and has lived his life according to biblical precepts, a real life good samaritan, this is Vance Day’s moment to stand. He does not intend to shirk it.
I, for one, am honored to tell his story, to follow the case of a brother in the faith under fire.
And I will be petitioning heaven on Judge Day’s behalf.
Monday, council members voted 
Earlier this morning, Tim Wolfe, the president of the University of Missouri system, abruptly resigned. Why? The popular narrative is that his “inadequate” response to a series of racist incidents on campus triggered a massive student backlash, including an unprecedented “strike” by the university’s football team, and he finally caved to the pressure.
This is a movement built from the ground up around power and coercion. They hate free speech because free speech represents nothing but a threat — a chance for dissenters to expose the bankruptcy of their ideas. They hate due process because due process stands in the way of class-based justice, of identity-based jurisprudence. They hate the orthodox Christian faith because it rejects their sexual ideology and places the human conscience beyond the reach of mortal man.
read the sad dispatches of people too pitiful for their profession. 
Even as Hillary Clinton tries to put questions about her private email server behind her, the FBI has stepped up inquiries into the security of the former secretary of state’s home-made email system and how aides communicated over email, POLITICO has learned.
Kettering Cancer Center
meaning 
As Betsy McCaughey explained after word of Health Republic’s demise came to light, this is a nationwide problem:
in New York state that went to the market for insurance,” Gibson said. “If this trend continues it’s going to be destabilizing for market.”
forced to resign by protests over his allegedly inadequate response to racist incidents on campus.
an email from the school’s Intercultural Affairs Council asking students to be thoughtful about the cultural implications of their Halloween costumes,” reports campus watchog group 
was harming, right?”
When it rains it pours. This morning 
What Did You Say? 
At Yale University, last week, a number of members of the Black Student Alliance physically surrounded an administrator and berated him for standing up for free speech and are now demanding his resignation. Caught on camera, one can easily see how dangerous the situation was.
In another example, the president of the University of Missouri, Tim Wolfe, has resigned. His resignation comes after more than 30 members of the football team threatened not to play unless he was forced out. Their claim was that, in unspecified ways, Wolfe failed to eradicate “structural racism” on campus.
These situations have much in common, and the story is becoming a familiar one.
First;
Both situations involve student activists disrupting education, allegedly on behalf of education. At Yale, the activists claimed that allowing free discourse and debate and challenging their assumptions threatened the “safe space” they thought Yale was.
At Mizzou, activists claimed that failing to deal with “structural racism” was harming their education. Both groups of students listed not specific harms, but rather vague interests in feeling good at their university.
Second;
Both situations involve administrators being asked to clamp down on the free expression of other students. At Yale, students were upset that Yale administrators were not clamping down on Halloween costumes. At Mizzou, students wanted more unspecified action against perceived racism on campus.
Third;
Both situations involve menacing groups of students that come very close to physical violence. At Yale, for example, students physically encircled the administrator, shouted him down, and got very close to him in a threatening manner. At Mizzou, students physically surrounded the car of Wolfe and demanded he exit the vehicle into the mob.
This pattern is becoming more prevalent on American campuses. In the name of education, education is being disrupted by intolerant student activists, harming the experience for everyone else. At my alma mater, New York University Law School, a small cadre of students is complaining about Halloween decorations that included a man hanging from a noose, because such a decoration was “harmful suicide imagery.”
If one accepted all of the claims and agreed with the political aims of the student activists, one might think it advisable to close such unrepentantly bigoted universities down.
A more moderate response by university officials, however, would be to take their job as educators seriously. If a student seeks to disrupt the safety or education of another student, punish the disruptor.
If that were to happen, colleges would once again become “safe spaces” for free thought and expression.
This piece has been updated to state that Jonathan L. Butler’s hunger strike was for 7 days.