J. Michael Luttig Resigns From Appeals Court
May 10, 2006; 1:15 PM
Appeals court Judge J. Michael Luttig, a leading conservative jurist and a short-list Bush administration candidate for the Supreme Court, announced today that he is resigning from the bench to serve as senior vice president and general counsel of the Boeing Co.
Luttig, who sits on the Richmond-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, wrote the most important appellate decision yet in support of the Bush administration's powers to detain individuals without recourse to ordinary legal protections. But he had a significant falling-out with the Justice Department late last year when he protested, in a follow-up opinion, what he suggested was the administration's inappropriate manipulation of the legal system in order to avoid a further Supreme Court test of the president's wartime authority.
*****
Luttig is a good man and a fair jurist. The 4th Circuit is going to miss him.
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4 comments:
I am sorry to hear that.
Today's front-page WSJ article on Luttig's resignation is stunning:
The clash, which underscores the increasing skepticism among even some conservative jurists toward the Bush administration’s sweeping theories of executive power, culminated yesterday in Judge Luttig’s resignation.
While I didn't embrace Luttig's orignal decision in the Padilla case, I applauded his condemnation of the WH's tactics in the 4th Cir.'s December 2005 decision, and I am certainly heartened to read now that some on the right are expressing doubt with the WH/Bush's "Commander-in-Chief" end runs on the other branches of government. I only wish he would have stayed on to fight the good fight...even if from the right.
Nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it. Perfect.
stayed on to fight the good fight…even if from the right.
I should have said: ...most especially, from the right.
Going to work for Boeing, eh? I did that years ago. Since 1984, in fact...good company.
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