Oregon Supreme Court

For all the high-minded ideals of justice debated inside, this structure has spent a good portion of its life simply fighting to survive. On April 25, 1935, a massive fire completely destroyed the neighboring Oregon State Capitol. The Supreme Court Building, finished in 1914, narrowly escaped the inferno. But it did not escape unscathed. Water used to fight the Capitol blaze flooded the underground utility tunnels connecting the two structures. The water poured directly into the Supreme Court's basement, destroying thousands of books in the state law library. It was a chaotic, devastating scene, but perfectly fitting for a city that has constantly had to watch its grandest civic and academic ambitions burn down, wash away, and then stubbornly rise from the mud to start all over again. Nature was not quite finished with the court, either. In 1962, a massive weather event known as the Columbus Day Storm struck the building and shattered the courtroom's magnificent stained-glass skylight. The glass, designed by the renowned Povey Brothers of Portland, had to be painstakingly reconstructed piece by piece. Yet, my favorite thing about the Oregon Supreme Court is not its physical resilience, but its dry sense of humor. You would think the highest court in the state, the final word on Oregon law, would be a place of pure, unyielding ego. But they have a tradition that keeps everyone incredibly grounded. By long-standing custom, the newest justice elected or appointed to the court is assigned the smallest office in the building. It is affectionately known as the broom closet. This initiation ritual comes with a very specific, menial duty. Whenever the seven justices are in a private conference and someone knocks, that junior justice must get up and answer the door. It does not matter if the new justice is sixty years old with decades of trial experience. In the broom closet, seniority rules. The court handles everything from death penalty appeals to complex land use cases. It operates primarily as an appellate court, meaning it reviews decisions made by lower courts to ensure the law was applied correctly, rather than holding new trials with witnesses and juries. The building is generally open to the public Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM if you want to take a look inside.