Paul De Muniz

Paul J. De Muniz (born June 8, 1947) is a retired American judge in the state of Oregon. He is the first Hispanic Chief Justice in the history of the Oregon Supreme Court. He was elected to the court in 2000, and elected as chief justice in 2006. He won re-election in May 2006 for another six-year term on the state's highest court. De Muniz previously served on the Oregon Court of Appeals for ten years.

Early life Born on June 8, 1947, in Glendale, California, De Muniz's family lived there until Paul turned six when the family relocated to Portland, Oregon. In Portland, he attended Harvey Scott Elementary in the Roseway Neighborhood and graduated from Madison High School in Northeast Portland. De Muniz enrolled at Portland State University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in 1972. He completed his education in 1975 after graduating from Willamette University College of Law in Salem with a JD.

In 1990, De Muniz was appointed to Oregon Court of Appeals by Oregon's governor, and then won election to a full six-year term on the court in November of that year. He served on the Court of Appeals from 1990 to 2000, when in 2000 he was elected to the Oregon Supreme Court to fill an open seat on the court vacated when George Van Hoomissen retired. De Muniz' term began in 2001 when he became the state's first Latino Supreme Court justice, and in 2006 he was elected chief justice. Upon joining the court, he became the first Latino member in the court's history.

Consulting work De Muniz registered as an insurance industry lobbyist five months after his retirement from the bench. In November 2014, he was hired by a group of Chicago-area academics who had won a contract to monitor settlement of the United States v. City of Portland case. After considerable public criticism De Muniz resigned the position in April 2015.

Other Paul De Muniz is an adjunct professor of law at Willamette University College of Law where he was mentor of the year in 1997. De Muniz has chaired the Sakhalin/Oregon Rule of Law partnership and served on the Judicial Fitness and Disability Commission, the Oregon State Bar's Board of Bar Examiners, the Supreme Court Access to Justice for All Committee, and the Oregon Criminal Justice Council.

Works authored A Practical Guide to Oregon Criminal Procedure and Practice, Templeton Press, 2005. "Eroding the Public's Confidence in Judicial Impartiality: First Amendment Federal Jurisprudence and Special Interest Financing of Judicial Campaigns", 67 Albany Law Review 763, 2004. "Politicizing State Judicial Elections: A Threat to Judicial Independence", 38 Willamette Law Review 367, 2002.