U.S. District Court Judge James Robertson to lecture on issues facing the judiciary in context of the current political climate

U.S. District Court Judge James Robertson to lecture on issues facing the judiciary in context of the current political climate September 27, 2006Carol K. Masiclatclkim@syr.edu

Judge James Robertson of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., will speak on issues facing the judiciary in the context of the current political climate Tuesday, Oct. 3, at 7 p.m. in Maxwell Auditorium in Maxwell Hall. The event is free and open to the public, and is sponsored by the Renee Crown University Honors Program at Syracuse University.

Robertson was praised by The Economist in 2004 for his crucial decision to halt the trial of Salim Ahmend Hamdan, a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay. That decision, overturned on appeal, was vindicated recently by the U.S. Supreme Court in a stunning defeat for the Bush administration — and the consequences of that defeat are playing out almost daily in the news. Earlier this year, in an article about congressional inquiry into the Bush Administration’s domestic surveillance program, The New York Times wrote “But the most pointed testimony may have come from a man who was not at the hearing: Judge Robertson,” who had resigned without further comment from the FISA panel.