Judge Vance Day: Victim of Oregon ‘tolerance’

Judge Vance Day

by NW Spotlight

Marion County Circuit Court Judge Vance Day has been in the news recently because he has stopped performing weddings after U.S. District Judge Michael McShane’s 2014 ruling that effectively legalized gay marriage in Oregon.

According to a September 4, 2015 article in the Salem Statesman Journal “In Marion County, judges are not required to perform marriages. Marion County’s website lists five active judges and one retired judge who are available for ceremonies.”

Judge Day is now the target of the Oregon Commission on Judicial Fitness and Disability. He will go before the Commission on November 9, 2015 in Salem. The complaint has what Judge Day describes as “everything and the kitchen sink,” including incidents from 2012 at his son’s soccer game (not kidding), an incident with a former member of Navy SEAL Team Six (who was enrolled due to a felony DUII) and a firearm (which Judge Day self-reported), having a “Hitler picture” up in the courthouse, and declining to perform marriages after marriage was redefined in Oregon.

The “Hitler picture” incident has produced some of the most sensationalized and pathetically biased reporting in recent history, which is saying something. Guess it’s just life in the day when newspapers live and die by how many “clicks” a story gets. Judge Day has installed a large collection of Oregon veteran’s memorabilia in the courthouse, including from past Oregon Supreme Court justices. One of those was from an Oregonian who served in the 82^nd Airborne during WW II. The vet had sent home a small portrait of Hitler he’d cut out while setting up a hospital, and it was one of the things his family donated. It was included in the background as part of a wall hanging that included photos of the vet, dog tags, military patches, etc. It was included to show who these “citizen soldiers” had defeated, the mass murdering Hitler. Check out the photo in this Oregonian article to see for yourself.

Judge Day was the chair of the Oregon Republican Party from 2005-2009. Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber appointed Vance Day as a circuit court judge back in 2011, in what was intended to be an example of the governor’s “bipartisan approach.”

Judge Day was recently on KATU’s Your Voice, Your Vote and did an excellent job of explaining what’s happening:

It really appears that Judge Vance Day is being attacked because he refuses to do any weddings in Oregon because of his religious views. He is not performing ANY weddings, so there is no “discrimination” and it’s not required of him to do weddings. So it appears they are going after him for other alleged “violations.” It probably also doesn’t help him that he was a chair of the Oregon GOP in this one-party rule state.

All this costs money, and it’s costing him personally. If you’d like to donate to his defense fund, please click here on Defend Judge Day.