Judge Royce Lambeth’s main claim to fame at the moment is that of judicial “shoppee:” The Department of Justice “shopped around” for a judge willing to approve the subpoena for the emails and phone logs of Fox correspondent James Rosen. After two other judges had refused to approve it, Lambeth did.
So what is Lambeth’s background? One of those liberal judges appointed by a Democratic president whom conservatives accuse of blind support for any Democratic administration and lack of seriousness when it comes to national security?
On the contrary, Lambeth served in the Army’s Judge Advocate General Corps for six years and was subsequently appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan. From 1995 to 2002, he was the Presiding Judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA), the court that approves secret wiretaps, etc., in terrorism investigations and is touted as the bulwark protecting civil liberties from the incursions of a powerful government.
So folks, if you harbored any doubts about how well protected all your metadata is (even those of you who two weeks ago didn’t know you had any metadata), then you really ought to wonder just how well FISA will protect you against the Obama Administration.
