J. Blaine Anderson was born in Trenton, Utah, on January 19, 1922. He married Grace Little on November 14, 1944; they had four children, three sons and one daughter. He graduated from the University of Idaho College of Law in 1949 and was admitted to the Idaho bar the same year. He practiced in Blackfoot as a partner in the law firm Furchner and Anderson until 1971, when he was appointed a district judge for the District of Idaho. One of his best known decisions was Marshall v. Barlow (1975) that held as unconstitutional an Occupational Safety and Health Administration provision that allowed the search of businesses without a search warrant.
In 1976 he was appointed U.S. Court of Appeals Judge for the 9th Circuit, the largest of the 12 federal circuit courts. As chief administrative judge of the Northern Unit, which included Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, Judge Anderson was the highest ranking federal judicial officer in Idaho. While on the court he wrote the decision holding that the National Football League violated anti-trust laws when it refused to permit the Oakland Raiders to move to Los Angeles (see case 1795). He also wrote the decision in the Committee for an Independent P-I (
Anderson was a member of the University of Idaho Alumni Hall of Fame and was awarded the first Faculty Award of Legal Merit from the College of Law in 1974. Well-respected by his fellow jurists for his excellent reasonings and opinions, he was awarded an honorary J.D. degree from Lewis & Clark College in 1978. He was a member of the American Bar Association, Idaho State Bar Association, South East Idaho District Bar, American Judicature Society, the American College of Probate Counsel, and a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. In addition to his judicial duties he was chairman of Idaho's Air Pollution Committee from 1959-1960. He was still active on the appeals court when he died at his Boise home on April 17, 1988, at the age of 66.
The case files of Judge J. Blaine Anderson span the years 1972 to 1988, with the bulk of the material covering his years on the appeals court, 1976 to 1988.
The papers include legal briefs, opinions, and other documents, memos and manuscript notes concerning cases the judge heard as District Court Judge and Appeals Court Judge. There is a card file index to all cases.
It has been reported that several law clerks purged the files of controversial material before shipment of the records from Judge Anderson's Boise office. This may account for some of the missing or empty folders. Other folders have evidence that individual documents were removed.
All of Judge Anderson's files were in labelled folders thus making it possible to reconstruct series divisions and original order. The folders in series two were stamped with a file number, and those in series three were labeled with either yellow or blue labels. Since the folders were in good condition and the folders themselves sometimes contained additional information, such as the place and date the case was heard, the material was kept in the original folders; however, in the case of very "fat files", the papers were divided and some material was placed in new folders. Several alphabetical card files facilitate access to the individual cases.
Four drawers of Rolodex cards comprise series one. Information on the cards includes the name of the case, file number, and occasionally a synopsis of the point of law which was the reason for the appeal. These cards must be consulted to access the collection.
Series two consists of the cases the judge heard in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals at sessions held in Anchorage, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Portland, Seattle and Honolulu. These are in consecutively numbered folders, each case having its own number, and are accessed through use of the card index. All cases were checked against the card file and a check mark was placed in the upper right hand corner of the card if the case is in the collection. The following inventory lists only the file numbers in each box. The court of appeals case files include legal briefs, motions, opinions, judge's memos to each other, and manuscript notes pertaining to the cases.
Series three consists of Idaho District Court cases. These are divided into two subseries, yellow labels and blue labels, both filed alphabetically. The yellow labelled cases are indexed by the name of the case and these cards have a "y" in the upper right hand corner of the index card. The files with blue labels are indexed under subject; a majority are under "Three Judge Court", but there are exceptions. These cases are identified by a "b" on the index card. The material contained in the folders is somewhat more extensive than that contained in the folders in series two.
Series four contains extensive files on two district court cases. The Nevada-Paiute Indian case (U.S. and Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of Indians v. Truckee-Carson Irrigation District) was heard in the District Court of Nevada and concerns the tribe's claim to substantial portions of the Truckee river in order to maintain it as a viable fishery. The Sun Valley Cases are the four consolidated law suits brought against Sun Valley Airlines and Beech Aircraft as a result of the crash of a Beech Aircraft, owned and operated by Sun Valley Airlines, near Fairfield, Idaho, on February 20, 1972, in which five people were killed.
The papers of Judge J. Blaine Anderson were donated to the University of Idaho Library at the request of Dean of the College of Law, Sheldon Vincenti, by the Judge's widow, Grace Little Anderson, in December 1989.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.