HONORABLE JAMES ROBERTSON Oral History Project The Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit Oral History Project United States Courts The Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit District of Columbia Circuit HONORABLE JAMES ROBERTSON Interviews conducted by Ann Allen, Esquire November 6, 2003, March 18 and May 6 and August 19, 2004, November 15, 2006, June 10, 2015, July 28, 2015 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface. ................................................................................................................................ i Oral History Agreements Honorable James Robertson ..................................................................................... iii Ann Allen, Esquire......................................................................................................v Oral History Transcripts of Interviews November 6, 2003 .......................................................................................................1 March 18, 2004 .........................................................................................................47 May 6, 2004 ..............................................................................................................71 August 19, 2004 ......................................................................................................110 November 15, 2006 .................................................................................................139 June 10, 2015 ..........................................................................................................175 July 28, 2015 ...........................................................................................................213 Index ............................................................................................................................. A-1 Table of Cases and Statutes .............................................................................................B-1 Biographical Sketches Honorable James Robertson ................................................................................C-1 Ann Allen, Esquire...............................................................................................C-2 NOTE The following pages record interviews conducted on the dates indicated. The interviews were recorded digitally or on cassette tape, and the interviewee and the interviewer have been afforded an opportunity to review and edit the transcript. The contents hereof and all literary rights pertaining hereto are governed by, and are subject to, the Oral History Agreements included herewith. © 2017 Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit. All rights reserved. PREFACE The goal of the Oral History Project of the Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit is to preserve the recollections of the judges of the Courts of the District of Columbia Circuit and lawyers, court staff, and others who played important roles in the history of the Circuit. The Project began in 1991. Oral history interviews are conducted by volunteer attorneys who are trained by the Society. Before donating the oral history to the Society, both the subject of the history and the interviewer have had an opportunity to review and edit the transcripts. Indexed transcripts of the oral histories and related documents are available in the Judges’ Library in the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse, 333 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, and the library of the Historical Society of the District of Columbia With the permission of the person being interviewed, oral histories are also available on the Internet through the Society's Web site, www.dcchs.org. Audio recordings of most interviews, as well as electronic versions of the transcripts, are in the custody of the Society. i Schedule A Voice recordings (digital recordings, cassette tapes) and transcripts resulting from seven interviews of James Robertson conducted on the following dates: Description of Media Interview No. and Date Containing Voice Recordings Pages of Transcript No. 1, November 6, 2003 Cassette Tapes 1 and 2 46 No. 2, March 18, 2004 Tape 3 23 No. 3, May 6, 2004 Tapes 4 and 5 38 No.4,August 19, 2004 Tape 6 28 No. 5, November 15, 2006 Tape 7 36 No. 6, June 10, 2015 Tape 8 38 No. 7, July 28, 2015 Tape 9 33 The transcripts of the seven interviews are contained on one CD. The Historical Sodety of the District of Columbia Circuit Oral History Agreement of Ann Allen 1. Having agreed to conduct an oral history interview with James Robertson forthe Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit, Washington, D.C., and its employees and agents (hereinafter"the Society"), I, Ann Allen, do hereby grant and convey to the Society and its successors and assigns all of my rights, title, and interest in the voice recordings ( digital recordings, cassette tapes) and transcripts of the interviews as described in Schedule A hereto, including literary rights and copyrights. 2. I understand that the Society may duplicate, edit, or publish in any form or for­ mat, including publication on the Internet, and permit the use of said voice recordings (digital recordings, cassette tapes) and transcripts in any manner that the Society considers appropriate, and I waive any claims I may have or acquire to any royalties from such use. 3. I agree that I will make no use of the oral history or the information contained therein until it is concluded and edited, or until I receive permission from the Society. �2.1,1Dt7 D e SWORN TO AND SUBSCRIBED before me this day of :J:,_.., , 201 t'. � ' -M-�k<dNotary Public My Commission expires: l:> -z.,.// ,../ z.o 2-1 ACCEPTED this )� day of (-e,.b,utVi,L.Jn , 2011_, by Stephen J. Pollak, President of the Historical Society of the District of Col bia Circuit. d �Stepei; JT Pollak.� Schedule A Voice recordings (digital recordings, cassette tapes) and transcripts resulting from seven interviews of James Robertson conducted on the following dates: Description of Media Interview No. and Date �ontaining Voice Recordings Pages of Transcript No. 1, November 6, 2003 Cassette Tapes 1 and 2 46 No. 2, March 18, 2004 Tape 3 23 No. 3, May 6, 2004 Tapes 4 and 5 38 No. 4, August 19, 2004 Tape 6 28 No. 5, November 15, 2006 Tape 7 36 No. 6, June 10, 2015 Tapes 8 and 9 38 No. 7, July 28, 2015 Tape 10 33 The transcripts of the seven interviews are contained on one CD. ACTLVE/89448634. l ORAL HISTORY OF JUDGE JAMES ROBERTSON This interview is being conducted on behalf of the Oral History Project of The Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit. The interviewer is Ann Allen, and the interviewee is James Robertson. The interview took place at the Federal Courthouse on November 6, 2003. This is the first interview. MS. ALLEN: So let me just start with a general question about where you were born and grew up and your family. MR. ROBERTSON: I was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1938 as one of twins. My parents were a little older than most parents. My father was born in 1891 and my mother in 1902. My sister and I were their second and third children, the last of their three children. My father, at the time I was born, worked for the Cleveland Trust Bank in Cleveland. I am not exactly sure what the story is, but after some years he was on the outs with the president of the bank, George Gund, who went on become a very wealthy Clevelander. My father left the Cleveland Trust Bank and joined, what I think we would call today, an investment banking firm called Otis & Company in Cleveland, which got into some trouble with the SEC. My father saw that coming and got out because he had nothing to do with the SEC problems. He tried to continue working as an independent financial consultant. All of this occurred over a period of, I don’t know, five, six, seven years, when we lived first in Cleveland and then in the little college town of Oberlin, Ohio. Oberlin is the town that I consider my home town. MS. ALLEN: How old were you when you moved there? -1- MR. ROBERTSON: Probably two or three years old. MS. ALLEN: Oh, very young. MR. ROBERTSON: Yes. We moved away from Oberlin when I was about 12. My sisters and I reconstructed this recently. So it’s amazing how the years between three and twelve are the years that anchor one in a place. I’ve always considered Oberlin my home town, even though I only lived there for nine years. MS. ALLEN: So when you think back on your childhood, that’s home? MR. ROBERTSON: Yes, that was home. MS. ALLEN: Was your family from Cleveland originally? MR. ROBERTSON: No. My father was from Wabash, Indiana. My mother was from Kansas City, Missouri. They met – my father was sort of an itinerant banker. He was in Chicago at the time of the Black Tuesday crash in the stock market and wound up in Cleveland somehow. My mother was a psychiatric social worker, kind of a very early psychiatric social worker. In those days, to be a psychiatric social worker, you had to undergo analysis. So I was raised with a lot of psychiatric social workers and psychiatrists. My mother never told us whether we were being good or bad, she told whether we were being normal or not. MS. ALLEN: Did she work outside the home when you were growing up? MR. ROBERTSON: She went back to work after my father’s employment situation got shakier and shakier. When he left Otis & Company I think he began on this independent financial consultant track. She found it necessary. She went -2- back to I think Smith College and got a refresher