James Robertson (judge)

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James Robertson
Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
In office
December 31, 2008 – June 1, 2010
Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
In office
October 11, 1994 – December 31, 2008
Appointed byBill Clinton
Preceded byGeorge Hughes Revercomb
Succeeded byRobert L. Wilkins
Personal details
Born(1938-05-18)May 18, 1938
Cleveland, Ohio
DiedSeptember 7, 2019(2019-09-07) (aged 81)
Washington, D.C.
SpouseBerit Persson (m. 1959)
EducationPrinceton University (B.A.)
George Washington University Law School (LL.B.)

James Robertson (May 18, 1938 – September 7, 2019) was a

warrantless wiretapping.[1]

Early life, education, and Navy service

Robertson was born in

Navy ROTC scholarship.[2] Robertson was a member of the American Whig–Cliosophic Society at Princeton.[4]

Robertson served in the

LL.B in 1965.[3][1][2]

Legal career

With the exception of a three-year gap from 1969 to 1972, Robertson was in private practice in

Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering.[1][2] While at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, Robertson worked under Louis F. Oberdorfer and later represented the Automobile Manufacturers Association in connection with the development of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.[7] From 1969 to 1972, when Robertson served with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, as chief counsel at the organization's offices in Jackson, Mississippi (1969–1970) and as national director in Washington, D.C. (1970–1972).[2]

He became a partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in 1973.[1] While in private practice, he served as president of the District of Columbia Bar (1991–1992),[1][2] and president of the Southern Africa Legal Services and Legal Education Project (1989–1994).[2]

Federal judicial service

Appointment and confirmation

On September 14, 1994, Robertson was nominated by President

Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, which rates judicial nominees, unanimously rated Robertson as "well qualified" (the committee's highest rating).[8] Robertson was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 7, 1994, by voice vote.[9] He received his commission four days later.[3]

Resignation from FISA Court

collection of data in bulk, in addition to warrants targeted at individuals.[11] In Robertson's view, this change "turned the FISA court into something like an administrative agency, which makes and approves rules for others to follow," which he viewed as not being a proper role for the judiciary.[11]

Robertson was an early and prominent advocate of the need for an institutional adversary process within the FISA Court, to allow FISA judges to hear arguments from counsel other than the government's counsel.[11][12] In an oral history, Robertson said:

In the exercise of its quotidian warrant-issuing function, the FISA Court acts like a magistrate judge. Everything is ex parte, and there is no reason, no occasion, to have a defense lawyer there arguing that the warrant should not be issued. But when the FISA court is asked, as it was after the enactment of the Patriot Act, to approve not only individual warrants but also surveillance programs that would be carried on without a warrant, then the FISA Court was acting I thought like a court reviewing the work of an administrative agency. And when courts review the work of administrative agencies, they do it in an adversary context with somebody arguing the other side. I said to the PCLOB that a judge who hears one side of an argument may think that’s a pretty good argument until he hears the other side of the argument. Our system depends entirely on somebody pushing back and arguing the other side of any proposition. And I said that without that, courts are going to make mistakes.[12]

A compromise provision in the 2015 USA Freedom Act adopted a form of adversary process within the FISA Court, allowing the court's judges to call upon a panel of attorneys as amicus curiae to offer adversary views; Robertson viewed this reform as a sufficient process to satisfy adversaries.[12]

Notable rulings

Notable rulings by Robertson include:

  • writ of habeas corpus. Robertson ruled in favor of Hamdan's favor, finding that the United States could not hold a military commission unless it was first shown that the detainee was not a prisoner of war. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Robertson's ruling in 2006.[1]

Retirement and death

After serving for 14 years, Robertson assumed senior status on the District Court on December 31, 2008; he fully retired on June 1, 2010.[3] After retiring from the bench, Robertson became a mediator and arbitrator with JAMS, deciding complex commercial cases.[21] He also wrote two op-eds published in the Washington Post.[22][23]

Robertson died on September 7, 2019, at age 81,[2][24] in Washington, D.C., due to heart disease.[1]

Personal life

Robertson married Berit Persson in 1959; they had three children and six grandchildren.[1]

Robertson lived in North Bethesda, Maryland, and later Georgetown.[25]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Bart Barnes, James Robertson, federal judge who took stand against warrantless surveillance, dies at 81, Washington Post (September 16, 2019).
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i John Murph, Judge James Robertson, Former D.C. Bar President, Passes Away Archived September 27, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, D.C. Bar (September 10, 2019).
  3. ^ a b c d e "Robertson, James". History of the Federal Judiciary. Federal Judicial Center.
  4. ^ James Robertson Oral History, Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit, p. 12.
  5. ^ James Robertson Oral History, Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit, pp. 14-15.
  6. ^ a b James Robertson Oral History, Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit, pp. 20-21; 141.
  7. ^ James Robertson Oral History, Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit, pp. 27-29.
  8. Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary
    .
  9. ^ [PN1749 — James Robertson — The Judiciary 103rd Congress (1993–1994)], Congress.gov.
  10. ^
    Washington Post
    .
  11. ^ a b c d Larry Abramson (July 9, 2013). "Former FISA Judge Questions Court's Approval of Surveillance". All Things Considered. NPR.
  12. ^ a b c James Robertson Oral History, Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit, pp. 182-184.
  13. ^ Ruth Marcus & Susan Schmidt, Judge Dismisses Hubbell Tax Case, Washington Post (July 2, 1998).
  14. ^ Ned Mulcahy, Federal judge rules US currency discriminates against blind, Jurist (November 28, 2006).
  15. ^ American Council of Blind v. Paulson, 463 F. Supp. 2d 51 (D.D.C. 2006).
  16. ^ Edmund L. Andrews, U.S. Currency Discriminates Against Blind, Judge Rules, New York Times (November 29, 2006).
  17. ^ David Stout, Blind Win Court Ruling on U.S. Currency, New York Times (May 21, 2008).
  18. ^ American Council of the Blind v. Paulson, 525 F.3d 1256 (D.C. Cir. 2008).
  19. ^ Schroer v. Billington, 424 F. Supp. 2d 203 (D.D.C. 2006).
  20. ^ Bill Mears, Transsexual wins lawsuit against Library of Congress, CNN (September 19, 2008).
  21. ^ James Robertson Oral History, Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit, pp. 195-99.
  22. ^ James Robertson, Judges shouldn't decide about drone strikes, Washington Post (February 15, 2013).
  23. ^ James Robertson, The judicial nomination war started with Bork. Let's end it with Gorsuch., Washington Post (March 15, 2017).
  24. ^ "Former DC Federal Judge James Robertson Dies At 81". Law360. September 11, 2019. Archived from the original on October 9, 2019. Retrieved September 11, 2019.
  25. ^ James Robertson Oral History, Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit, pp. 74, 169, 179.

External links

Legal offices
Preceded by Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
1994–2008 		Succeeded by
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