by Julia Shumway, Oregon Capital Chronicle
September 17, 2024
A panel of federal judges on Tuesday tossed out a nominal $1 in damages and more than $375,000 in attorney fees awarded to a Republican Oregon state senator who argued he was retaliated against for political comments understood as threats.
The decision by a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is the latest twist in a long-running lawsuit filed by Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas, against fellow senators who required him to give advance notice before he entered the Capitol because lawmakers and Senate staff said they feared for their safety.
U.S. District Judge Michael McShane determined last year that the Senate Conduct Committee violated Boquist’s First Amendment rights by requiring that notice, but the appeals court said neither Boquist’s arguments nor McShane’s ruling proved that Senate leaders violated clearly established laws or constitutional rights.
The case stems from Boquist’s comments during a 2019 Republican-led Senate walkout, including telling then-Senate President Peter Courtney “If you send the state police to get me, Hell’s coming to visit you personally.” The same day, Boquist told a reporter that he told the state police superintendent to “send bachelors and come heavily armed” if officers would try to compel his presence at the Capitol.
Those comments were both widely interpreted as threats from a senator who was known to carry a gun at the Capitol. The four members of the Senate Conduct Committee, two Democrats and two Republicans, voted unanimously in July 2019 to require Boquist provide 12 hours of notice before he planned to enter the Capitol. Guns are also now banned in the Capitol.
The Senate stopped enforcing its rule requiring Boquist to give notice in November 2022. The appeals court said Boquist’s case was moot because that rule no longer exists. Additionally, any complaints about senators’ conduct to be submitted within five years under legislative rules, and the five-year period for complaints about Boquist’s 2019 comments expired this summer.
“Boquist’s theory that the Senate defendants may reimpose the notice rule is ‘speculative,’” the judges wrote in their opinion, first reported by the Oregonian/OregonLive.
Boquist said in an email to the Capital Chronicle that he hadn’t yet reviewed the appeals court’s opinion, and that he’ll be looking at his options to appeal.
“Understand the court and state ran out the clock over five years so now claiming it is moot,” he wrote. “Typical government case of spend the tax dollars money on appeals until moot.”
A spokesman for Democratic Senate President Rob Wagner declined to comment.
Boquist is now running for state treasurer against a fellow senator, Democrat Elizabeth Steiner of Portland.
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