Judge Lamberth's Speech to the San Antonio Bar

I received an email noting that many of District of Columbia Chief Judge Royce Lamberth's friends in Washington are interested in what he had to say to the San Antonio Bar Association at Thursday's luncheon.

I did not take notes during the speech, but here (paraphrased) are a few things I recall Judge Lamberth mentioning:

• On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, he was in the middle of a trial, but had recessed that morning for a dental appointment. He was on the freeway next to the Pentagon when the plane hit, and smoke from the crash blocked the road.
• The U.S. Marshals could not get to him to escort him to his chambers, so he granted several warrants over his cell phone while in his car. The FBI finally reached him to escort him to his destination.
• After the terrorist attacks, he did not get another good night's sleep until March, when the U.S. captured al Qaida's No. 3 man.
• He disagrees with the idea that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was a "rubber stamp" for the government. He said while he was on the court, he took care to make sure that people's rights were protected.
• After the Foreign Intelligence Suveillance Court ruled against the Bush Administration in 2002, the case was appealed to the Foreign Intelligence Suveillance Court of Review--the first appeal in the more than two decades of the surveillance court's existence--which struck down the ruling. Judge Lambreth said the review court concluded that the surveillance court and previous attorneys general had been doing it wrong for all those years.
• During the Robert Hanssen spy case, the judge met regularly with Attorney General Janet Reno and FBI director Louis Freeh. There were some 300 agents working the case, and the judge, AG, and director were the only three people connected with the investigation who did not take weekly polygraph tests.
• In the first months of the Clinton administration, he found that because Hillary Clinton was not a federal employee, her health care task force meetings should be made public. The D.C. circuit overturned him, holding that she was the "functional equivalent" of a federal employee, but the judge told us he thinks "you either are a federal employee or you're not."
• During that controversy, he attended a function for federal judges at the White House. When he introduced himself to Bill Clinton, the president replied, "Oh, I know who you are."

I will try to add to this later. If anyone remembers something I left out, please feel free to post in the comments below.