A Taste of Ashes—The MacPherson Decision 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.