B.A., J.D., Yale. Judge James E. Baker was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in September 2000. He previously served as Special Assistant to the President and Legal Adviser to the National Security Council (NSC) (1997-2000), Deputy Legal Adviser to the National Security Council (1994-1997) and as Counsel to the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and Intelligence Oversight Board. Judge Baker has also served as an attorney adviser in the Office of the Legal Advisor, Department of State, a legislative aide and acting Chief of Staff to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1985-1987), and as a Marine Corps infantry officer (1979-2000), resigning his Reserve commission upon joining the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.
He is the author of In the Common Defense: National Security Law for Perilous Times (Cambridge: 2007) and, with Michael Riesman, Regulating Covert Action (Yale University Press: 1992). Judge Baker is the recipient of the 1999 Colonel Nelson Drew Memorial Award (the NSC’s highest honor) and the Director of Central Intelligence's "Director's Award."