Patterico's Pontifications

5/10/2006

Luttig Resigns

Filed under: Judiciary — Patterico @ 6:23 pm



Bad news for the Fourth Circuit: Luttig resigns.

The logic: why stay on? Racial and gender politics dictate that he couldn’t be nominated for the next High Court vacancy anyway.

And you can’t buck racial and gender politics.

21 Responses to “Luttig Resigns”

  1. I don’t get it: unless you’re saying that the job of being on the 4th circuit sucks, it makes no sense to leave that job for some other job just because you can’t get a Supreme Court position.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  2. I’m not sure I get it, either. Even if a job as an appellate judge were that bad, what makes you think Luttig couldn’t be nominated? Isn’t he a member of the same sex and the same race as the last two guys who got nominated and confirmed?

    Xrlq (1e3b05)

  3. Bush hates him, he was like “fuck this, I gots ta get paid!”

    The Angry Clam (a7c6b1)

  4. Well, as I understand it, he’s got a teen and a pre-teen he has to educate, among other things. And he’s been in public service for twenty-five years. Maybe he’s an independent millionaire. I don’t know. But the chance to make real money and to provide for his retirement and his family’s financial security is something I understand and respect.

    nk (947b03)

  5. I too understand and respect his decision. But you must, absolutely must, buck race and gender and identity politics. This is as vital as the war on terror. You must fight it every day, and in every way you can. Luttig was in a position to directly participate in that fight. I can only hope that the President can appoint an equally capable jurist to properly interpret the law. We hate to lose anyone of Judge Luttig’s quality. But the culture war will go on. As Churchill said: “We will never surrender”.

    vertex11 (98c50b)

  6. Perhaps the declining chance of a nomination, given the likely dimishment of the Republican majority, and the fact that Justice Stevens will live forever, made the million dollar job offer seem like the better part of valor.

    Kevin Murphy (0b2493)

  7. I’m certainly sorry to see Luttig off the Fourth Circuit and (presumably) out of the running for SCOTUS. I think Angry Clam and nk are correct in that Luttig probably thought it was time to make a pile to take care of the kids rather than wait around for the likes of Kennedy and Leahy to insinuate he’s a racist.

    I look at it this way, if he can’t be on the Supreme Court the next best thing is looking out for the interests of a great American company like Boeing. It’s one of the few companies that actually builds anything in the US these days. The fact that Boeing has made it possible for me to pay the mortgage for the last 15 years might make me less than objective. The Fourth Circuit’s loss is our gain.

    Jeff C. (428193)

  8. Off topic a bit Patterico, but I thought you might be interested in this story on Edith Jones.

    Seems she has been accepting trips funded by conservative groups. Nothing wrong with that on its face IMO but it may be why she didn’t get the nod when Sainted Sandra retired.

    Since the media is so untrustworthy I’m wondering if there is even anything really there.

    As far as Luttig is concerned my guess is he just decided that if he didn’t get the nod on the first 2 vacancies he wasn’t going to get it at all and he might as well move on and make some cash. I don’t blame him.

    Dwilkers (a1687a)

  9. The Washington Post reports there are at least two reasons Luttig is leaving the bench: For financial reasons (so he can send his 2 children to college), and because he knows he won’t be nominated for the Supreme Court (due to anger in the White House over Luttig’s decision in the Padilla case).

    I don’t think gender or race has much to do with Luttig’s decision. Surely by now GWB realizes that it’s better to nominate someone that pleases the base, rather than try to please liberals and end up with everyone hating his choice.

    DRJ (3c8cd6)

  10. I’m sorry, DRJ, I do not understand the second part of your comment. I always thought Judge Luttig was one of the top choices for the Supreme Court among conservatives. For my part, he’s dead-on on the death penalty (maybe pun intended) and I agreed with him on the Padilla case. I always thought that Padilla should have gotten the due process that Mousaoui and Reid got — he’s a U.S. citizen and they’re not.

    nk (4cd0c2)

  11. nk, what actually happened is that Luttig ruled (as leader of a three judge panel) that Padilla was not entitled to a trial in a civilian court. In so doing he relied on Bush adminstration representations that Padilla was extremely dangerous and that this was vital for the war on terror. When the Bush administration later decided to try Padilla in a civilian court anyway (apparently to avoid a Supreme Court review of Luttig’s decision) Luttig felt he had been played for a fool and flipped out by issuing a ruling blocking Padilla’s transfer to a civilian court. This ruling was unanimously reversed by the Supreme Court as it had no legal basis.

    This is the main reason, given Bush’s sensitivity to criticism, that Luttig’s chances for any future Supreme Court nomination by Bush were not great. I also suspect Luttig may now be disillusioned with the Bush administration in general (a lot of that going around) and felt like getting out of Washington.

    James B. Shearer (fc887e)

  12. NK,

    James B. Shearer has explained the Luttig situation well so I won’t repeat that. My comment seemed logical at the time I wrote it but it does seem inconsistent in retrospect. Thank you for giving me a chance to clear that up.

    I agree that Judge Luttig was originally considered a prime candidate to be one of GWB’s Supreme Court nominees. In my view, he would still be an excellent nominee but it seems GWB and/or some people in the Bush Administration have soured on Judge Luttig because of the Padilla case. At this point, I don’t think it’s likely we will see a Luttig nomination by the Bush Administration and probably Judge Luttig felt the same way.

    Patterico’s original post and other comments hypothesized that Luttig was unlikely to be nominated because the next nominee (if there is one) will be a woman, minority or both. The point being, no more white males, thus excluding Luttig.

    My point was that Judge Luttig may have resigned in part because he wasn’t going to be a Supreme Court justice, but I’m not convinced that the next justice necessarily has to be a woman or a minority. Maybe it’s wishful thinking on my part but I hope the Bush Administration learned from the Miers’ nomination that the nominee must be well-qualified, regardless of race or gender. However, sometimes it’s hard to tell what lessons this Administration has learned.

    DRJ (8b9d41)

  13. Thanks, James B. and DRJ.

    nk (54c569)

  14. Isn’t he a member of the same sex and the same race as the last two guys who got nominated and confirmed?

    It might have something to do with his reaction to the DOJ’s handling of Padilla.

    actus (35bc24)

  15. That might play in there too.

    Patterico (50c3cd)

  16. “That might play in there too.”

    Just a little bit. The white house is really into gender and race, and not so much into loyalty to their whims into how to run the war on terror.

    actus (35bc24)

  17. From the WSJ:

    People close to the selection process said that it was unlikely President Bush would consider Judge Luttig for any future vacancies, as political imperatives all but precluded nomination of another white male for the high court.

    Patterico (50c3cd)

  18. You can’t buck racial and gender politics. Like I said.

    Patterico (50c3cd)

  19. ” The white house is really into gender and race, and not so much into loyalty to their whims into how to run the war on terror.”

    WTF?
    Too many bongs, perhaps?

    Deacon Bleau (dedd98)

  20. I wish Luttig the best.

    Hope he makes a good living and can send his kids to school and retire comfortably.

    It’s amazing we can get top flight jurists to serve given the show trial nature of the “confirmation” process.

    I would nominate the Angry Claim to his DCA seat; perhaps he could carry Scalia’s shotgun on those Halliburton sponsored duck hunting trips.

    Deacon Bleau (dedd98)


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