James Robertson (judge)

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For other persons named James Robertson, see James Robertson (disambiguation).

Judge Robertson

James Robertson (born 1938) is a judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. James Robertson was appointed a United States District Judge by President Bill Clinton in 1994. Chief Justice William Rehnquist later placed him on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. On December 20, 2005, Judge Robertson resigned his Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court position.

After graduating from Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, he graduated from Princeton University in 1959 and received an LL.B. from The George Washington University Law School in 1965 after serving in the U.S. Navy.

From 1965 to 1969, he was in private practice with the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. From 1969 to 1972, Robertson served with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, as chief counsel of the Committee’s litigation offices in Jackson, Mississippi, and as director in Washington, D.C. Robertson then returned to private practice with Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, where he practiced until his appointment to the federal bench. While in private practice, he served as president of the District of Columbia Bar, co-chair of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and president of Southern Africa Legal Services and Legal Education Project, Inc.

Judge Robertson resigned from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, sending a letter to United States Chief Justice John G. Roberts announcing his resignation with no explanation. The Washington Post reported the resignation was related to the Bush administration's surveillance of international communications and phone calls sent or received in the United States, without judicial warrants. The disclosure of this classified program to the New York Times' is being investigated by the United States Department of Justice.

[edit] Notable rulings

Hamdan v. Rumsfeld - Military trials of Guantanamo Bay detainment camp prisoners (summary) (full text PDF file)

U.S. v. Webster Hubbell - (1) Whether the 5th Amendment privilege against self-incrimination protects information previously recorded in voluntary created documents that a defendant delivers to the government pursuant to an immunized act of production, and (2) whether a defendant's act producing ordinary business records constitutes a compelled testimonial communication solely because the government cannot identify the documents with reasonable particularity before they are produced? Supreme Court upheld 8-1

American Council for the Blind v. John W. Snow, Secretary of the Treasury et al. - The U.S. Treasury Department’s failure to design, produce and issue paper currency that is readily distinguishable to blind and visually impaired people violates federal law, since paper money effectively precludes them from meaningful access to U.S. currency.

"Of the more than 180 countries that issue paper currency, only the United States prints bills that are identical in size and color in all their denominations," Robertson wrote.