22 Facts About Royce Lamberth

Royce Charles Lamberth is a senior judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, who formerly served as its chief judge.

Royce Lamberth graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas, where he was a member of the Tejas Club, and from the University of Texas School of Law, receiving a Bachelor of Laws in 1967.

Royce Lamberth served as a captain in the United States Army Judge Advocate General's Corps from 1968 to 1974, including one year in Vietnam.

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.

Royce Lamberth was confirmed by the United States Senate on November 13,1987, and commissioned on November 16,1987.

Royce Lamberth served as chief judge from 2008 to 2013.

Royce Lamberth served as presiding judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court from 1995 to 2002.

Since becoming a senior judge, Royce Lamberth has been assigned as a visiting judge in San Antonio for several months per year at the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.

Royce Lamberth, appointed to the bench by President Ronald Reagan, was known for speaking his mind and repeatedly ruled for the Native Americans in their class-action lawsuit.

Royce Lamberth's opinions condemned the government and found Interior secretaries Gale Norton and Bruce Babbitt in contempt of court for their handling of the 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, Royce Lamberth ordered the Islamic Republic of Iran to pay US$2.65 billion for the actions of Hezbollah, a Shia militia group determined to be involved in the bombing in Beirut, Lebanon.

On December 29,2016, Royce Lamberth ordered the preservation of the full classified United States Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture.

In May 2010, Judge Royce Lamberth overruled Magistrate Judge John Facciola's determination that the Justice Department needed to directly notify Rosen of the issuance of the warrant.

In May 2013, Royce Lamberth issued an apology from the bench for the clerk's office failure to unseal the search warrant docket entries as Royce Lamberth had ordered in November 2011.

Judge Royce Lamberth refused to lift the injunction forbidding the research pending the appeal of his ruling, and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit 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.

In July 2011, Judge Royce Lamberth ordered the release of Richard Nixon's testimony concerning the Watergate scandal.

In June 2020, Lamberth was assigned the case United States v Bolton, in which the Trump administration sued to prevent the publication of John Bolton's book The Room Where It Happened.

Royce Lamberth has handed down some of the longest sentences of the more than 480 people convicted for their actions during the attack.

In 2021, Royce Lamberth controversially ordered a DC jail to provide Jacob Chansley the "organic" food he had requested as a religious accommodation, after Chansley refused to eat for days while awaiting trial.

Royce Lamberth eventually ordered Chansley moved to a new jail that would provide him with organic food.

In 2023, Royce Lamberth denied Chansley's request to throw out his conviction, after Chansley argued footage of the January 6 attack released by Tucker Carlson would have been favorable to his case.

In October 2021, Royce Lamberth held DC corrections officials in contempt, citing treatment and civil rights abuses of January 6 participant Christopher Worrell.