Robert Y. Thornton

Infobox_Politician
name = Robert Y. Thornton


width =
height =
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1910|1|28|mf=y
birth_place = Portland, Oregon
residence =
death_date = death date and age|2003|11|29|1910|1|28|mf=y
death_place =
office = Judge on the Oregon Court of Appeals
term_start = 1971
term_end = 1983
predecessor = Edward H. Branchfield
successor = Jonathan Newman
constituency =
office2 = Oregon Attorney General
term_start2 = January 5 1953
term_end2 = May 20 1969
predecessor2 = George Neuner (R)
successor2 = Lee Johnson (R)
constituency2 =
office3 = Oregon State Representative
3rd District, Tillamook
term_start3 = 1951
term_end3 = 1953
predecessor3 = Edward A. Geary (R)
successor3 = Harry C. Elliott (R)
constituency3 =
party = Democratic
religion = Episcopalian
occupation = Attorney, Jurist
majority =
relations =
spouse = Dorothy Marie Haberbach Thornton
civil partner =
children = 1 son
website =
footnotes =

Robert Y. Thornton (January 28, 1910 - November 29, 2003) was an attorney, politician, and jurist in the U.S. state of Oregon.cite web | title = Robert Y. Thornton | work = Marquis Who's Who, 2006 | publisher = Marquis Who's Who. Reproduced in "Biography Resource Center". Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. | date = 2006 | url = http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC | format = HTML | accessdate = 2006-12-08] A Democrat, he was the second-longest serving Oregon Attorney General in the state's history, holding that office from 1953 to 1969. His 16-year tenure was second only to Republican Isaac Homer Van Winkle, who bested him by the length of a single four-year term, serving from 1920 to 1943.cite news | title = Ex-attorney general, judge dies at 93 | work = The Register Guard | pages = 10A | publisher = Eugene, Oregon: Register-Guard | date = December 4, 2003] Thornton was the Democratic nominee for Oregon Governor in 1962, losing in the general election to incumbent Mark Hatfield.Balmer, Donald G. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/444960 “The 1962 Election in Oregon”] . "The Western Political Quarterly", Vol. 16, No. 2, A Symposium: The 1962 Elections in the West (Jun., 1963), Western Political Science Association. pp. 453-459.]

His ultimate defeat by Republican Lee Johnson, who garnered some 80,000 more votes than Thornton in the 1968 general election, became a matter for the courts. Thornton challenged the outcome by bringing a suit charging that Johnson had violated campaign spending limits and falsified a report by signing the blank form. Johnson admitted he had done so in anticipation of being out of the country when the report was to be filed. A three-judge panel in Marion County ruled in favor of Thornton, invalidating the election results and awarding Thornton an additional term. The Oregon Supreme Court overturned that decision and awarded the office to Johnson, on the grounds that neither violation was deliberate and that both had occurred after the election.cite news | title = Ex-attorney general, judge dies at 93 | work = The Register Guard | pages = 10A | publisher = Eugene, Oregon: Register-Guard | date = December 4, 2003]

Education

*AB, Stanford University, 1932
*Postgraduate study, University of Oregon, 1933-35
*JD, George Washington University, 1937cite web | title = Robert Y. Thornton | work = Marquis Who's Who, 2006 | publisher = Marquis Who's Who. Reproduced in "Biography Resource Center". Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. | date = 2006 | url = http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC | format = HTML | accessdate = 2006-12-08]

Career

* 1971-1983 - Judge, Oregon Court of Appeals
* 1953-1969 - Oregon Attorney General
* 1951-1953 - Oregon State Representativecite web
title = Oregon Legislative Assembly (46th) 1951 Regular Session
work = Oregon State Archives Division (Official website)
publisher = Oregon Secretary of State
date = 2006
url = http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/legislative/histleg/statehood/1951reg.htm
format = HTML
accessdate = 2006-12-08]
* 1946-1953 - Private practice of law (Tillamook, Oregon)
* 1941-1946 - U.S. Army, WWII, Japan, attaining rank of Lieutenant Colonel
* 1939-1941 - Private practice of law (Tillamook)
* 1938-1939 - Assistant Solicitor, U.S. Department of the Interior
* 1937-1938 - Law Clerk, District of Columbia Court of Appealscite web | title = Robert Y. Thornton | work = Marquis Who's Who, 2006 | publisher = Marquis Who's Who. Reproduced in "Biography Resource Center". Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. | date = 2006 | url = http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC | format = HTML | accessdate = 2006-12-08]

Publications

*cite journal | title = Organized Crime in the Field of Prostitution | journal = Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science | volume = 46 | issue = 6 | pages = 775–779 | publisher = Northwestern University School of Law | date = March-April, 1956 | doi = 10.2307/1139977 | author = Thornton, Robert Y.

References