Roger Robb (7 July 1907-19 December 1985) was the Republican Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 6 May 1969 to 31 May 1982, succeeding John A. Danaher and preceding Antonin Scalia.
Biography[]
Roger Robb was born in Bellows Falls, Vermont in 1907, the son of judge Charles Henry Robb. He served as an Assistant US Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1931 to 1938 after graduating from Yale, and he worked in private practice in Washington DC from 1938 to 1969. In 1950, he defended CPUSA leader Earl Browder by court appointment in spite of their political differences, but he went on to serve as the Atomic Energy Commission's special counsel at the 1954 Oppenheimer security hearing, where his harsh prosecutorial tactics helped the AEC decide 4-1 to strip J. Robert Oppenheimer of his security clearance for his past communist ties. He later represented Barry Goldwater in 1968, and Richard Nixon appointed him to a judgeship in 1969. He assumed senior status in 1982 and died in 1985.