Legal Commentary

Judge Quit FISA Court in Protest Three Years Ago

By Professor University of Miami School of Law

Via Pogo Was Right, FISA Court Judge Quit Over White House’s Refusal to Legally Obtain Spy Warrants, comes this story which, while it speaks very well for Judge Robertson, carries the troubling implication that the judges with a strong view of the bill of rights may self-select off the FISA court.

FISA Court Judge Quit Over White House’s Refusal to Legally Obtain Spy Warrants

Three years ago, US District Court Judge James Robertson sent a letter to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., notifying him of his resignation from a secret intelligence court set up to monitor the federal government’s domestic surveillance activities.

Robertson’s abrupt departure came on the heels of a December 2005 report in The New York Times that first exposed the White House’s warrantless wiretapping program President Bush had authorized shortly after 9/11. Robertson, who was appointed to the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court by the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, told colleagues that President Bush’s unilateral decision to spy on Americans suspected of links to terrorists, without first seeking approval from the 11 judges assigned to the FISA court, was legally questionable and his resignation should be interpreted as a sign of protest.

This week the Senate will vote to allow this corrupt administration to wiretap Americans for up to a week without a warrant, and to remove the check of liability on telcos that enable past (and by implication future) illegal wiretaps.

Parlous times.

Full post as published by Discourse.net on July 08, 2008 (boomark / email).