JUDGE SACKED BECAUSE HE HAS CHRISTIAN BELIEFS
According to an email from Judge Day’s wife Mattie:
You know my husband, Vance. He has been a Circuit Court Judge here in Oregon for 4 years. In that short time, he has specially trained to identify and deal with domestic violence. He was asked to join national faculty to train other judges in this prevalent issue. He started the second and largest Veterans Treatment Court in Oregon. He has been asked to mentor the judiciary in other counties for establishing vets courts. He established the “Hall of Heroes” gallery at the Courthouse commemorating our local veterans in leadership positions to inspire his treatment court participants and bring awareness to vets issues.
Vance is now under attack by the Oregon Commission on Judicial Fitness and Disability because they say he is unfit to be a judge – he won’t perform same-sex marriage because of his faith and quietly decided to stop performing all marriages. The fact is that performing marriages is an optional part of his job – there is no requirement that Oregon judges perform marriages. (Please see www.defendjudgeday.com for more detailed information on the allegations)
The Commission has piled on other charges that have nothing to do with ethical conduct, perhaps to distract attention from the fact that the marriage issue is at the heart of their effort to discredit him in the public eye. These other charges are simply window dressing, in the hope that somehow quantity will make up for their lack of quality.
Their strategy seems to be to throw every thing possible at Judge Day, hoping something sticks. And, not incidentally, to make it very difficult and expensive to defend himself.
Vance’s task of mounting an effective defense is complicated by the fact that the Commission has an unusual amount of power in its investigation. They are prosecutor, judge and jury all rolled into one, and they have the very substantial financial advantages and other resources of the state government to draw upon. We, on the other hand, have to hire our own attorneys.
The politics of personal destruction is not a new idea. In Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky said:
“Denigrate your opponent, then box him in, so that he must defend the accusations, rather than be able to debate the issues.”
This state-sponsored power play against Vance will have a result of damaging “judicial independence” and creating a culture of politically correct “behavior and thought police” to monitor all judges. It appears the Commission intends to destroy him, but they don’t know my husband. Vance is a congenial, humorous fellow who is not afraid to be a fighter when it comes to things that matter! To Vance’s opponents, he is just a former Chairman of the Oregon Republican Party who was unfortunately appointed to the bench by a Democrat governor. What feels even worse to them is that he is a Christian believer who is an enthusiastic patriot that they think is biased and, therefore, he cannot be trusted.
To the Commission and certain far-left groups, Judge Day’s personal decision to respectfully and quietly remove himself from performing same-sex marriages cannot be tolerated – he must be branded a bigot and found to be unfit for public service. There is a “no tolerance” policy for people with traditional values regarding the institution of marriage.
Undoubtedly, there are many judges in this nation who will face the same type of ferocious attack. Vance appears to be the first judicial target since the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage. The goal appears to be: make him an example so that other judges will not dare to push back on politically correct elites. However, they don’t know that Vance is a warrior who will not leave this battle until he wins or is expelled from office.
We need your help! In one month, my husband’s two week “ethics trial” will start: November 9 – November 20. We have competent and generous lawyers who have given many free hours to this case and reduced their rates because they believe in Vance. Nevertheless, we are discovering a case like this costs a fortune just to prepare considering numerous day-long depositions, hiring of experts, delivering subpoenas, and hiring investigators, let alone covering the copy charges.
To take this case through the end of the year we must raise $300,000. We have put in our savings and will sell our home, but we must have donations to finance this case in the next three weeks. Our friends at the James Madison Center for Free Speech have raised just over $50,000, bringing the total needed by November 1st down to $250,000. We need a whole bunch of people who will give $25, $50, or $100. We need to raise as much as possible in the next three weeks.
Will you please help?? Any amount really does make a difference. Please go to: www.defendjudgeday.com and make a commitment to raise $250 through your friends and family. There is a donation link on the website, which is really easy and secure. It will only take a few minutes. We must have $100k by Friday, October 16th, with a total of $250k by November 1.
Please stand with Vance. Please help him push back those who want to run people of faith out of public service. We all have First Amendment rights designed to protect us from this type of assault. If they win, who is next?
Sincerely,
Mattie Day
