When the voters had adopted Article VII (Amended) in 1910, they had relaxed constitutional restrictions on the courts that could exist in the state, vesting the judicial power "in one supreme court and in such other courts as may from time to time be created by law."1 In 1913, the Legislature exercised that authority for the first time, creating the first district court.2 The district courts were, in large part, a substitute for justice courts in urban areas, having (like justice courts) limited civil and criminal jurisdiction.3By 1997 -- the last year in which district courts existed -- 30 of Oregon's 36 counties had district courts.4 (For more on the consolidation of district courts and the circuit courts, please see the discussion regarding consolidation in 1998.)
Also in 1913, the Legislature expanded the Supreme Court to its current complement of seven justices.5 The first two new justices were William M. Ramsey and Charles L. McNary.6 The number of Supreme Court justices has remained fixed at seven ever since.7
With the expansion of the court, the Legislature also authorized the court to hear and decide cases in departments of three justices each.8 But the Chief Justice alone, or any four associate justices together, could order a case to be heard "in bank" by the full court.9 The authority for the Supreme Court to sit in departments continues to this day, and while the Court has sat in departments at times, it does not do so at the present.10 The last decision issued by a department of the Supreme Court appears to have been Thompson v. Department of Revenue, 287 Or 297, 597 P2d 1250 (1979).
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