Fwd: [DemocraticResearch] Federal Judge resigns in protest of Bush

Submitted by PAAMember on December 21, 2005 - 4:00pm. ::


TOM BLACKWELL <> wrote:

Judge leaves surveillance court in protest of Bush

2 associates say he was concerned about allowance of domestic spying

By CAROL D. LEONNIG and DAFNA LINZE
Washington Post

WASHINGTON - 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.


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U.S. District Judge James Robertson, one of 11 members of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, sent a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts late Monday notifying
him of his resignation without providing an explanation.
Two associates familiar with his decision said Tuesday 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 Clinton in 1994 and was later selected by then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist to serve on the FISA court, declined to comment when reached at his office late Tuesday.
Word of Robertson's resignation came as two Senate Republicans joined the call for congressional investigations into the National Security Agency's warrantless interception of telephone calls and e-mails to overseas locations by U.S. citizens suspected of links to terrorist groups. They questioned the legality of the operation and the extent to which the White House kept Congress informed.
Sens.
Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Olympia Snowe of Maine echoed concerns raised by Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has promised hearings in the new year.
Hagel and Snowe joined Democrats Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in calling for a joint investigation by the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence panels into the classified program.
Robertson indicated to colleagues that he was concerned that information gained from warrantless NSA surveillance could have then been used to obtain FISA warrants. FISA court Presiding Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who had been briefed on the spying program by the administration, raised the same concern in 2004, and insisted that the Justice Department certify in writing that it was not occurring.
"They just don't know if the product of wiretaps were used for FISA warrants


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