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Robert Belloni: an Oral History

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Robert Belloni: an Oral History Robert Belloni: An Oral History i ii Robert Belloni An Oral History FOREWORD BY JUDGE OWEN PANNER US District Court of Oregon Historical Society Oral History Project Portland, Oregon iii Copyright © 2011 United States District Court of Oregon Historical Society Printed in the United States of America PROJECT STAFF Janice Dilg, Oral History Liaison Adair Law, Editor & Page layout Jim Strassmaier, Interviewer iv CONTENTS Foreword....................................................................................................................................xx Introduction..............................................................................................................................xx Tape One, September 19, 1988.................................................................................................1 Side 1—Family History, Parents Side 2—Family Status, School Tape Two, September 19, 1988...............................................................................................14 Side 1—Influence of Adults, Educational Plans Side 2—Father’s Death, Early Political Memories Tape Three, September 28, 1988............................................................................................24 Side 1—Work After College, Military Service, Philippine Islands and Japan Side 2—Marriage and Law School, Memories of Ted Goodwin Tape Four, September 28, 1988 - November 7, 1988...........................................................34 Side 1—Inspiring Teachers Side 2—Early Days as a Lawyer, Early Political Office Tape Five, November 8, 1988..................................................................................................46 Side 1—Democratic Party Politics Side 2—Blank Tape Six, December 21, 1988..................................................................................................51 Side 1—Becoming a Judge, Juvenile Work Side 2—Injured Worker Cases Tape Seven, December 21, 1988.............................................................................................64 Side 1— Range of Judicial Experiences, Family Conversations Side 2—Early Married Life Tape 8, January 9, 1989.............................................................................................................71 Side 1—Appointment to the Federal Bench, Appointment Politics Side 2— New District Court Judge, Range of Work Tape 9, March 27, 1989.............................................................................................................82 Side 1— Working Relations Side 2—Judge Gus Solomon, Important Cases Tape 10, March 27, 1989...........................................................................................................90 Side 1 —Dalkon Shield cases Side 2—Blank v Tape 11, March 27, 1989...........................................................................................................91 Side 1—Processing the Work, Judicial Philosophies Side 2—Range of Cases, Multidistrict Tort Cases Tape 12, May 31, 1988.............................................................................................................103 Side 1—Becoming Chief Judge, Magistrate Judges, Indian Fishing Cases Side 2—Pressure from Outside Groups Tape 13, May 31, 1988.............................................................................................................114 Side 1—North American Indian Case Side 2—Blank Tape 14, July 5, 1989...............................................................................................................115 Side 1—Conscientious Objector Cases, United States v. Loud Hawk Side 2—Handling Tort Cases Tape 15, July 24, 1989.............................................................................................................127 Side 1—State of the Federal Justice System Side 2—Senior Status Endnotes..................................................................................................................................137 vi vii FOREWORD The Oral History Project of the District Court of Oregon Historical Society began in 1983. Through the efforts of Judge James Burns and his wife Helen, a gathering of lawyers, judges, and historians took place at the Society’s inception. The Honorable Robert F. Peckham, District Judge for the Northern District of California, discussed the Northern District Historical Society and the inspiration was born for Oregon’s District Court Historical Society, the second such organization in the country. The original Board of Directors of the Society was composed of twenty-one members with bylaws including the Presiding Judge of the Court, the Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, and the President and a representative of the Oregon State Bar. The original officers and directors included outstanding judges and lawyers – Judge John Kilkenny, Honorary Chair, Judge James Burns, Chairman, Randall Kester, President, Manley Strayer, Vice President, Elizabeth Buehler, Treasurer, Susan Graber, Corporate Secretary, and Robert M. Christ, Executive Secretary, along with many other top names in Oregon’s legal history. The Society decided to collect, study, preserve, analyze, and disseminate information concerning the history, development, character, operations, and accomplishments of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon. It was therefore logical that the Oral History Project should be established to preserve the histories of the judges, law firms, and lawyers who actively practice in the Court. With the assistance of Rick Harmon and James Strassmaier, the Oregon Historical Society held seminars to educate volunteers in taking oral histories with a biographical and Court-oriented focus. The Oregon Historical Society has been most viii cooperative in agreeing to maintain these histories in their permanent collection for study by scholars and other interested parties. These oral history interviews have been taken by recording devices, and are either transcribed or transcription is underway. A transcript reproduces, as faithfully as possible, the original sound recording that reflects the special value of oral history, namely its free and personal expressiveness. Most of the transcripts in the District Court Collection have been lightly edited and reviewed for clarity and accuracy by the narrators. That process continues. It is through these wonderful oral histories that the story of the Court is told. We now have recorded nearly 120 individuals since the project began. The goal is to record the individual histories of all the judges of the Court, as well as those of participating lawyers. The Court has a rich tradition reflected in the activities of the judges and lawyers of the Court. The recording has been done not only by professional historians, but also by dedicated volunteers. As one such volunteer said, “The opportunity to interview someone that you always admired is truly an exciting experience.” The history of the Court is being created by the men and women who have participated in its collection and activities. The Society’s goals are to collect as much of that history as possible, because is it the history of the law and those who make it that constitutes the moral development of humanity. All of us who are students of the law venerate it. We are also interested in the people who make it. Judge Owen Panner February 28, 2006 ix x portion of Switzerland next to the Italian border. It is only thirty or forty miles from Milan, actually. Times in the latter part of the previous century were very, very difficult in southern Europe. There was just absolutely no opportunity for young Family History people. Well, my great grandmother had four sons, all bright people without much JS: Let me start out this morning in the opportunity. She had a sickly husband. very simple fashion of asking you if you He was a lay functionary of some kind in would state your full name and tell us the the Catholic Church. He was a kind of a date and place of your birth. Notary Public. And, indeed, he did die quite young, leaving her with those four RB: I’m Robert C. Belloni. I was born children, and pretty destitute. April 4, 1919 in the little town of Riverton, She did what she could to earn a Oregon, on the banks of the Coquille River, few bucks, among other things; she would halfway between Coquille and Bandon in drive her neighbor’s cattle up the Alps. The Coos County. term Alps means more than just a range of mountains. Alps are little areas; different JS: And, before we get to your parents, is plateaus on the mountain, a kind of a there something about your grandparents common pasture ground. So she’d take the that is significant in understanding your neighbor’s cows up there and bring them background? home and put every doggone thing that she earned [chuckles] in a sack or where RB: Yes, there is, Jim. In fact, this is she could. Her object was to raise enough something that has been important to me money to send her boys to America, all my life and has caused me to be able which was then, and I think is now, the to do a lot of things that I might not have land of opportunity. There was none otherwise had the courage to do, just to there. So when each boy had reached the remember what my grandparents did to age of twelve, with her advance planning, get to this country in the first place. she’d saved enough money to send them The heroine in my family was to America, specifically to California, to my great-grandmother, a lady named make their fortune. She did this knowing Maria Belloni who was living with her full
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