Posts

Showing posts from December 18, 2005

Why the resignation?

Spy Court Judge Quits In Protest Jurist Concerned Bush Order Tainted Work of Secret Panel By Carol D. Leonnig and Dafna LinzerWashington Post Staff WritersWednesday, December 21, 2005; Page A01 A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of President Bush's secret authorization of a domestic spying program, according to two sources. U.S. District Judge James Robertson, one of 11 members of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, sent a letter to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. late Monday notifying him of his resignation without providing an explanation. Two associates familiar with his decision said yesterday that Robertson privately expressed deep concern that the warrantless surveillance program authorized by the president in 2001 was legally questionable and may have tainted the FISA court's work. Robertson, who was appointed to the federal bench in Washington by President Bill Clinton in 1