Royce Charles Lamberth /’læm-bərth/ (born July 16, 1943) is a
senior judge of the
United States District Court for the District of Columbia
The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (in case citations, D.D.C.) is a federal district court in the District of Columbia. It also occasionally handles (jointly with the United States District Court for the District of ...
, who formerly served as its
chief judge
A chief judge (also known as presiding judge, president judge or principal judge) is the highest-ranking or most senior member of a lower court or circuit court with more than one judge. According to the Federal judiciary of the United States, th ...
. Since 2015, he has sat as a
visiting judge
A visiting judge is a judge appointed to hear a case as a member of a court to which he or she does not ordinarily belong. In United States federal courts, this is referred to as an assignment "by designation" of the Chief Justice of the Unite ...
on the
in
San Antonio
("Cradle of Freedom")
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, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, s ...
.
Education and career
Lamberth was born in 1943 in
San Antonio
("Cradle of Freedom")
, image_map =
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, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, s ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
. He graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
degree from the
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
, where he was a member of the
Tejas Club
The Tejas Club is one of the oldest student organizations at the University of Texas at Austin. It was founded in 1925, and only has male members. The official purpose of the club is "to allow our members to live a more complete life by sharing th ...
, and from the
University of Texas School of Law
The University of Texas School of Law (Texas Law) is the law school of the University of Texas at Austin. Texas Law is consistently ranked as one of the top law schools in the United States and is highly selective—registering the 8th lowest ac ...
, receiving a
Bachelor of Laws
Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...
in 1967. He served as a captain in the
United States Army Judge Advocate General's Corps
The Judge Advocate General's Corps of the United States Army, also known as the U.S. Army JAG Corps, is the legal arm of the United States Army. It is composed of Army officers who are also lawyers and who provide legal services to the Army at a ...
from 1968 to 1974, including one year in
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
. After that, he became an Assistant
United States Attorney
United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...
for the District of Columbia. In 1978, Lamberth became chief of the civil division of the United States Attorney's Office, a position he held until his appointment to the federal bench.
Federal judicial service
Lamberth was nominated by President
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
on March 19, 1987, to the seat on the
United States District Court for the District of Columbia
The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (in case citations, D.D.C.) is a federal district court in the District of Columbia. It also occasionally handles (jointly with the United States District Court for the District of ...
vacated by Judge
Barrington D. Parker
Barrington Daniels Parker (November 17, 1915 – June 2, 1993) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Education and career
Parker was born in Rosslyn, Virginia, on November 17, 1915 ...
. He was confirmed by the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
on November 13, 1987, and commissioned on November 16, 1987. He served as chief judge from 2008 to 2013. He assumed
senior status
Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the Federal judiciary of the United States, federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of servi ...
on July 15, 2013.
He also served as presiding judge of the
United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), also called the FISA Court, is a U.S. federal court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to oversee requests for surveillance warrants aga ...
from 1995 to 2002.
Since becoming a senior judge, Lamberth has been assigned as a visiting judge in San Antonio for several months per year at the
.
Notable cases
''Cobell v. Kempthorne''
Lamberth presided over ''
Cobell v. Kempthorne'', a case in which a group of
Native Americans sued the
U.S. Department of the Interior
The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...
for allegedly mismanaging a trust intended for their benefit.
Lamberth, appointed to the bench by President
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
, was known for speaking his mind and repeatedly ruled for the Native Americans in their
class-action lawsuit
A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class action ...
. His opinions condemned the government and found Interior secretaries
Gale Norton
Gale Ann Norton (born March 11, 1954) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 48th United States Secretary of the Interior under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006. A member of the Republican Party, she previously serve ...
and
Bruce Babbitt
The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been a ...
in
contempt of court
Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the cour ...
for their handling of the case. The appellate court reversed Lamberth several times, including the contempt charge against Norton. After a particularly harsh opinion in 2005, in which Lamberth lambasted the Interior Department as
racist
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
, the government petitioned the Court of Appeals to remove him, alleging that he was too biased to continue with the case. On July 11, 2006, the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, siding with the government, removed Judge Lamberth from the case.
1983 Beirut barracks bombing case
In May 2003, in a case brought by families of the two hundred forty-one servicemen who were killed in the
1983 Beirut barracks bombing
Early on a Sunday morning, October 23, 1983, two truck bombs struck buildings in Beirut, Lebanon, housing American and French service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF), a military peacekeeping operation during the Lebanese ...
, Lamberth ordered the
Islamic Republic of Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
to pay US$2.65 billion for the actions of
Hezbollah
Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...
, a
Shia
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...
militia
A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
group determined to be involved in the bombing in
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
,
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
.
Guantanamo cases
Lamberth has presided over
Guantanamo captive
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...
s ''
habeas corpus
''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
'' petitions.
On December 29, 2016, Lamberth ordered the preservation of the full classified
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture.
The six thousand–page report had taken Intelligence Committee staff years to prepare. A six hundred–page unclassified summary was published in December 2014, when Democratic Senator
Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein ( ; born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933) is an American politician who serves as the senior United States senator from California, a seat she has held since 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she was ...
chaired the committee, against objections of the Committee's Republican minority. Its publication stirred controversy. Limited copies of the classified report had been made, and human rights workers were concerned that the CIA would work to have all copies of the document destroyed.
James Rosen search warrants
In 2010, two federal magistrate judges approved a warrant sought by Attorney General
Eric Holder
Eric Himpton Holder Jr. (born January 21, 1951) is an American lawyer who served as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States from 2009 to 2015. Holder, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama, was the first African America ...
's Justice Department to search personal e-mails and phone records of Fox News reporter
James Rosen related to a story about the North Korean nuclear program. In May 2010, Judge Lamberth overruled Magistrate Judge
John Facciola
John M. Facciola (born in 1944) served as a United States magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, from his appointment in August, 1997 until his retirement in December, 2014. Prior to being appointed to ...
's determination that the Justice Department needed to directly notify Rosen of the issuance of the warrant. In May 2013, Lamberth issued an apology from the bench for the Clerk's Office's failure to unseal the search warrant docket entries, as Judge Lamberth himself had ordered the matter unsealed in November 2011.
''Sherley v. Sebelius''
In August 2010, Lamberth issued a temporary injunction blocking an executive order by President
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
that expanded
stem cell
In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type o ...
research. He indicated the policy violated a ban on federal money being used to destroy embryos, called the
Dickey–Wicker Amendment.
Susan Jacoby complained that his decision was more a reflection of his politics than a rigorous interpretation of the Dickey–Wicker Amendment.
Judge Lamberth refused to lift the injunction forbidding the research pending the appeal of his ruling, and the
issued an order on September 9, 2010, providing for an emergency temporary lifting of the injunction in the case that had forbidden the research, at the request of the Justice Department. A three judge panel from that court overturned Lamberth's decision in August 2012, and the Supreme Court denied the plaintiff's request for an appeal.
''In re Kutler''
In July 2011, Judge Lamberth ordered the release of Richard Nixon's testimony concerning the
Watergate
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...
scandal. The Justice Department reviewed the decision after an objection from the administration insisting on the continued need for privacy of those involved.
''Royer v. Federal Bureau of Prisons''
On January 15, 2014, Judge Lamberth issued an order
harshly criticizing the
Department of Justice
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...
for what he described as its "sneering argument" that a federal prisoner had not been prejudiced by the Department's repeated failure to comply with
discovery
Discovery may refer to:
* Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown
* Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown
* Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence
Discovery, The Discovery ...
"because he remains incarcerated."
[Greenfield, Scott (2014-01-30]
When Judge Lamberth Smacks, The DOJ Hides
''Simple Justice'' Judge Lamberth went on to write that "
e whole point of this litigation is whether defendant can continue to single out plaintiff for special treatment as a terrorist during his continued period of incarceration. Did any supervising attorney ever read this nonsense that is being argued to this Court?"
[ Judge Lamberth proceeded "to grant the inmate plaintiff pretty much all his discovery motion and hammer dthe DOJ by telling plaintiff to submit its request for sanctions in the form of award of attorney fees and costs."][ In response to the Order, the Justice Department moved to substitute new counsel "and remove the appearances of all prior counsel for Defendant in the above-captioned case," ]Assistant United States Attorneys
An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. Attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal gove ...
Charlotte Abel, Laurie Weinstein, Rhonda Campbell and Rhonda Fields.[ This led one legal commentator to note that " appears that the government is seeking the clerk’s assistance in fundamentally altering the record, to intentionally conceal the identities of the assistants" who had been reprimanded by Judge Lamberth.][
]
''United States v. Bolton''
In June 2020, Lamberth was assigned the case ''United States v. Bolton'', in which the Trump administration
Donald Trump's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 45th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Donald Trump, his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican Party ...
sued to prevent the publication of John Bolton
John Robert Bolton (born November 20, 1948) is an American attorney, diplomat, Republican consultant, and political commentator. He served as the 25th United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006, and as the 26th United Sta ...
's book ''The Room Where It Happened
''The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir'' is a memoir by John Bolton, who served as National Security Advisor for U.S. President Donald Trump from April 2018 to September 2019. Bolton was reportedly paid an advance of $2 million.Sp ...
''. On June 20, Lamberth issued a ruling declining to enjoin
An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...
the publication, but leaving the case open for other remedies.[''United States v. Bolton'', no. 20-1580 (filed June 17, 2020, D.C.D.C) (June 20, 202]
Memorandum Order
See also
*Commerce Department trade mission controversy The Commerce Department trade mission controversy was an American political controversy in the 1990s during the Clinton Administration. It refers to the alleged selling of seats on United States federal planes going on international trade missions, ...
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lamberth, Royce Charles
1943 births
Living people
Military personnel from San Antonio
20th-century American judges
21st-century American judges
Assistant United States Attorneys
Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Judges presiding over Guantanamo habeas petitions
United States Army officers
United States district court judges appointed by Ronald Reagan
University of Texas School of Law alumni
Texas lawyers
Lawyers from Washington, D.C.
Judges of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
United States Army Judge Advocate General's Corps