Thread by @ScottHech

Today, despite a decades-long war fought by Oregon AG Ellen Rosenblum to preserve a KKK-law silencing Black voices on juries, the OR Supreme Court ruled against her.

She applauded the decision: “It has been a long & winding road to get here." Thread on her spectacular hypocrisy.

First, a history: Most think of the KKK in terms of physical violence. But they also used legislative/legal process to pass laws exacting legal violence. In Oregon they pushed a law to silence jurors. "Non-unanimous juries."

Here's a thread w/ more.

Impact: Black people are already less likely to be selected to be on a jury. More likely to be accused of crime. Non-unanimous juries led to disproportionate convictions. *They wouldve never been convicted & sent to prison anywhere else in the country.*

The KKK got their way.

Current Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum was once a state judge. Presided over countless non-unanimous juries. Sentenced Terrence Hayes to 13 years prison in 2004.

"While I was not kidnapped by white men in hoods, I was caged because of their law."usatoday.com/story/opinion/…

Finally in 2019, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case to end non-unanimous verdicts.

Most of Oregonian's significant leaders past & present joined a powerful brief asking the Supreme Court to topple this law.

*But not Oregon AG Ellen Rosenblum!*

Instead of joining Oregon's most powerful leaders to petition the Supreme Court to finally topple the racist stain on Oregon's past/present:

*Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum joined LOUISIANA* to argue to keep the racist law alive & thriving.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court didn't listen to Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum. In April 2020, they finally acknowledged what was long obvious: This racist law was unconstitutional.

Even Justice Kavanaugh couldn't deny how racist the law was & rejected Rosenblum.

Despite her fight in the Supreme Court to maintain the racist status quo Oregon AG Ellen Rosenblum still claimed to be happy about the ruling in Ramos.

Stated, that Oregon would finally be able to move past "embarrassing stain on our progressive state."

But she kept fighting.

Ramos v. Louisiana only applied to future cases. Not those unlucky enough to be convicted too long before the decision.

Ellen Rosenblum fought *every person convicted in the past from having the opportunity to have a new, fair trial.*

Then fought AGAIN in the Supreme Court.

Ellen Rosenblum went back to the Supreme Court & got Justice Kavanaugh to prohibit the rule in Ramos from reaching hundreds of people still in prison in Oregon. She wanted all those still burdened by the racist law to remain that way.

One of the worst decisions in history.

Imagine having power to end the impact of a KKK-passed law that still imprisons hundreds. Oregon AG Ellen Rosenblum had power, but used it to perpetuate racism.

Human Rights Watch (@hrw) called her failure to act “inconsistent w/ international human rights standards." Just wow.

Faced w/ pressure of a local & national coalition of advocates & orgs, Oregon AG Rosenblum finally spoke out publicly about *why* she was fighting to maintain the KKK juries.

Wrote an oped w/ this dangerous claim: Obligated to “uphold & enforce” any law. This is wrong:

Imagine having the power to right systemic racism. Imagine knowing & acknowledging a law you control was racist in origin. Then imagine instead of using your power to right this systemic racism, you instead use your power to defend it. And argue you're just following orders.

After she got her way in the Supreme Court, Oregon AG Ellen Rosenblum continued to block every effort in the courts to give relief to those still imprisoned by the KKK law. While on Twitter she memorialized Juneteenth & George Floyd's death.

She pretended to care.

Finally, despite Oregon AG Ellen Rosenblum's crusade-as a trial judge, as Attorney General, in the US Supreme Court & local courts—to defend a Jim Crow era law to silence Black jurors--the Oregon Supreme Court ruled against her.

She's out here now exclaiming "justice was done!"

It's hard for me to describe the feeling of knowing how hard the movement for basic freedom from a KKK law fought for years against the ardent opposition of one person--Ellen Rosenblum--& then, once a court forces her to act, see quotes like this from her in press:

For literal decades, Oregon AG Ellen Rosenblum defended a Jim Crow era law to silence Black jurors. To perpetuate white supremacy. Rejected reason. Claimed she was obligated to enforce the law as written (even if by KKK).

But *she* laments a "long & winding road to get here."

For literal decades, Oregon AG Ellen Rosenblum defended a Jim Crow era law to silence Black jurors. To perpetuate white supremacy. Rejected reason.

Now that a Court rules against her, claims she's "committed to eradicating inequalities & ensuring fairness."

It is important for all of us, but also any media writing on this historic moment, to not let leaders like Ellen Rosenblum grandstand & pretend to care. When at best, they refuse to use their power to do good, & at worst -- like Rosenblum -- fight w/ everything against it.

One of the most powerful parts of the Oregon Supreme Court’s decision to allow new trials for all those still imprisoned by a KKK law a new is the concurrence. Delves deeply into “that troubled aspect of our history lest we repeat it.”

Feels like he's writing to Ellen Rosenblum:

For more on the long fight against the KKK & then “progressive” Oregon Attorney General, Ellen Rosenblum, to topple a legal monument to racism, watch this powerful film my org produced. On Calvin Duncan. The great jailhouse lawyer who fought for decades.