A Taste of Ashes—TheMacPhersonDecision and the Future of Oregon's Planning Program

Abstract

On February 21, 2005, the Oregon Supreme Court handed down its decision in MacPherson v. Dept. of Adminis-trative Services (2006 OR LEXIS 104). In its decision, the Oregon Suprem Court reversed a trial court decision and upheld Oregon's Measure 37 against a series of facial constitutional challenges under the state and federal constitutions. The hopes of the plan-ning and environmental communities that skillful lawyering might save the state's planning program from the bullet of a voter-approved initiative that would damage that programsome say irreversibly, came to an end.