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EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Voters in Oregon are being asked this November to allow state judges to teach for pay at public colleges or serve part-time in the Oregon National Guard.
The state constitution generally prohibits people from paid service in more than one branch of government at the same time. Judges can teach at the private Willamette University or Lewis & Clark College in Portland, which has law programs, but not at the University of Oregon law school, which is an arm of the executive branch.
Measure 87 would ease the state constitution's separation of powers clause to allow state judges to serve part-time in the Guard or teach for pay at a public university. An exception to the rule already allows legislators to work in state-funded schools.
The measure has drawn no formal opposition, but several county-level Republican party groups across the state have recommended a "no" vote, The Register-Guard reported (http://is.gd/q0F7HV).
Both Willamette and Lewis & Clark have employed and paid multiple sitting state judges to work as professors.
The proposal could benefit the University of Oregon, the only public university in the state with its own law school, the newspaper said.
State Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, is the chief sponsor of the measure, which was put on by state lawmakers and not signature-collecting petitioners.
He said Lane County Circuit Judge Karsten Rasmussen brought the issue to his attention. Rasmussen is the only sitting judge who teaches classes at the University of Oregon's law school, although he does so as a volunteer, the Register-Guard reported.
Rasmussen in 2013 urged the Senate to refer the measure to voters, saying that students attending Oregon public universities deserve to benefit from classes taught by sitting judges.
David Schuman, a semiretired senior judge with the Oregon Court of Appeals who lives in Eugene, told the newspaper that students who enroll in classes taught by judges "get a real, in-the-trenches perspective on the judicial process."
The Lane County Republicans oppose the measure, saying current law should be retained to ensure that state court judges avoid any conflicts of interest in their judicial decisions, according to the group's website.
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Information from: The Register-Guard, http://www.registerguard.com
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