DETROIT, Aug. 23 (UPI) -- The U.S. federal judge who declared a Bush administration eavesdropping program unconstitutional belongs to a group that gave funds to a party in the case.
Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch said U.S. District Judge Anna Taylor Diggs is a trustee and an officer with the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan in Detroit, which has donated at least $45,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the case against the National Security Agency program, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
"The system relies on judges to exercise good judgment, and we need more information and more explanation about what the court's involvement was in support of the ACLU," said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch.
The Times interviewed three independent legal ethicists who said the judge's involvement with the group would not require her to exclude herself from the trial, but she probably should have revealed the connection in court.
