Foster v. Clark

The appeal before us concerns the renaming of a principal north-south thoroughfare in east Portland. The street, long known as Union Avenue, was renamed “Martin Luther King, Jr., Boulevard” by a Portland City Council ordinance passed on April 20, 1989. Thereafter, a group of Portland residents circulated and obtained sufficient signatures to have placed on the May 15, 1990, primary ballot a proposed measure submitting to the voters the following question: “Shall Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard be renamed Union Avenue?”

Plaintiffs, two resident voters in the City of Portland, then brought the…