Astonishing legal news today: Judge Michael Luttig, the #1 feeder judge to the Supreme Court these days, has resigned from the bench to become the General Counsel at Boeing. (Note: Today’s date is May 10, not April 1.) Luttig’s letter of resignation is available here.
The obvious question is, why? The Associated Press quoted Luttig as saying the following: “This opportunity just came out of the blue . . . I was not looking to leave the court, and did not expect to leave the court. After considering it, it seemed an opportunity we could not forego.” Luttig’s resignation letter to the President also develops this theme, although the explanation comes off as sort of weird. It suggests that Luttig is resigning because Boeing makes such terrific products and has a very impressive new CEO; in light of that, how could any judge turn down an opportunity to work there?!? (Huh?)
Did Luttig resign because he wasn’t picked for the Supreme Court, and figured his opportunity had passed? That’s going to be one theory. The Washington Post also has Luttig stating: “I’ve been on the bench 15 years . . . No one can or should plan their life with regard to a potential Supreme Court appointment.” Note, though, that this quote can be interpreted in two very different ways: First, that Luttig never planned for a Supreme Court appointment, or second, that he was planning on it but decided to resign because he figured he couldn’t plan for it anymore. It’s unclear to me which meaning he had in mind.
In any event, this is a remarkable development. Luttig is only 51 years old, and for the last 15 years has been one of the most influential court of appeals judges in the country.A Luttig clerkship was the conservative feeder clerkship, as it basically guaranteed a second clerkship with Justice Scalia, Thomas, or Kennedy. Indeed, almost all of Luttig’s former clerks have gone on to clerk at the Supreme Court, and many of them were shaped by Luttig’s strong views about the role of the courts in constitutional and statutory interpretation. Luttig could have spent another 30 years on the Fourth Circuit, and all signals suggest that he would have continued to be a major force in the appellate judiciary and in conservative legal circles. His decision to give that up to work for Boeing is stunning news.
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This is just raw speculation, but not everyone likes being a judge. E.g., William O. Douglas. It’s possible that after 15 years Luttig has had enough and is ready to move on.
The letter makes it sound like he’s doing it for the money. Judgeships don’t pay particularly well, relatively speaking. He notes that he has two kids rapidly approaching college age and has to do what is best for his family.
Bruce is absolutely right, as I’m sure being a judge has its strains, like any high-pressure job. Still, this is a bit of an unwelcome surprise for conservatives hoping he’d be next in line, as he was a brilliant judge. He’ll be wonderful as counsel for Boeing, so they’re fortunate. The rest of us have suffered a small loss.
I’d like to make a crack about Luttig sharing hookers with Duke Cunningham and Porter Goss, but I suspect that this really comes down to the truly obscene amount of money that Boeing offered him. I was initially surprised that he made the resignation effective immediately, but this is probably the only ethical choice, since his opinions as a judge could effect his new employer.
That said, I agree with Orin that his letter is really odd. Does anyone really believe that Boeing is some kind of American icon, or that working for Boeing is some kind of national service?
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It’s been my understanding for a while that Luttig doesn’t love being a judge. He’s very close to his family and was upset when he was required to have his chambers in the new Alexandria court house. He didn’t like the different social obligations that came with the judgeship. He obviously had been groomed to be a Justice, and I think that probably played a part in this process, but I think Luttig was tired of being a judge.
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I will join those who speculate that at 51 years of age he was tired of the judiciary and this opportunity will allow him to be an advocate, a counseler, make a boat-load of money which respects the obligations he has to his family, and perhaps allow him some other options not available to one who sits on the bench.
Who knows, maybe he was tired of the publicity, of everyone talking about him, or perhaps he didnot relish the role of the judiciary in the future.
All I can say is – thank you Judge Luttig for your service and good luck in the future.
There were a lot of A3G (among others) blind items that indicated Luttig was pretty furious/depressed around the time of the Miers nomination. While I doubt he begrudges it to Alito, my reading of conventional wisdom on Luttig has always been that his eventual goal was SCOTUS. It’s not unreasonable for him to reevaluate the chances of that and all of his future plans after what many of us regard as the travesty of the Miers nomination.
Damn. I was planning on being General Counsel at Boeing. Thanks a lot, Luttig.
I don’t understand why people seem to think that moving to Boeing ruins his chances of becoming a S.Ct. justice in the future. He’s still young, experienced, and well-liked by conservatives. Why wouldn’t his name be thrown into the hat if the Republicans recapture the Presidency in 2008? Being a GC for Boeing might even help him, since it is a politically powerful organization, generally well-regarded, and working for Boeing gives him extra-judicial experience that other justices lack (it also might make him look strong on defense, which is always politically popular in red states).
Two more thoughts on the Boeing news. First, Luttig’s rationale for choosing the Boeing job can’t be that he wants to spend more time with his family. Being the GC of a major corporation like Boeing has got to be as time-consuming or more time-consuming that being a judge. Also, I’m not sure that this is the best choice for Boeing. Luttig might not be as effective dealing with liberals as he is at dealing with conservatives. And it is unclear whether liberals or conservatives will control Congress and the Presidency in the upcoming years. Plus dealing with conservatives on defense issues is rarely a challenge for defense companies; the two are natural bedfellows. Defense companies need someone who can relate to liberals, who are often much more criticial of major defense contractors.
I see this as a truly bizarre development. Luttig was not just “a” federal judge, he was _the_ top Supreme Court feeder, and considered one of the very top conservative legal minds on the most conservative circuit. With those accolades, I doubt that he was tired of being a federal judge. It is also highly unlikely that Luttig was upset about where his chambers were located; Circuit Judges can have their chambers anywhere in the circuit, so long as they travel to the federal courthouses for sittings. So to me the most likely motivation in my mind is money, and I don’t think there is anything particularly wrong with that. Even so, this is still bizarre. Judges typically leave the judiciary for positions in government or to actually practice law. Luttig could easily send his children to college on what he would make as a partner at any of the many firms that would take him. The Boeing choice means that Luttig must have sent out feelers; corporations don’t just approach federal judges as a matter of course when looking to fill their general counsel positions. I suppose it’s also possible the subject just came up in conversation with someone who knew Boeing was looking, but I still find the choice odd from both directions.
This likely isn’t the last we will hear of Luttig; he is still young after all.
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Jeff wrote:
I don’t understand why any conservative would sitll want to appoint him to the Supreme Court now. Part of the criterion for nominees to the Supreme Court has become that they will serve for a long period of time. I’ve wondered lately if, in fact, that might mean it’s time to amend the constitution to appoint justices for a single, 18 year term rather than for life, but regardless of fantasy constitution-making, right now, Justices get life tenure, and particularly in conservative cicles, we expect them to make use of it. But Luttig has now bailed out of one lifetime appointment after barely fifteen years; why would anyone expect him stay any longer than that on SCOTUS?
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The figures I’ve been seeing for Luttig’s salary at Boeing (which is not being divulged) are running about $1M/yr.. This is by no stretch outrageous for a top-flight attorney. As well, it is looking like, relative to their peers elsewhere in the industrialized world, our federal judge’s salaries are scandalously low.
POTUS salary was recently doubled (to $400K/yr.). This should be a bellwether for reevaluation of all top federal salaries – particularly the bench.
The interesting long term question is whether judging is slowly becoming more like a regular job. That might not be so bad in some ways, but if the model is a regular agency job, that might not be so great.
The bad part, obviously, is the revolving door problem that other agencies have. Right now the culture of life tenure means that judges don’t have an exit in mind. But if judging starts becoming more and more of a mid-career thing, and judges start looking for a soft-landing out of the judiciary — you can fill in the blanks.
On the other hand, there’s something to be said for lives with many careers in them — its the american way. So mixed feelings.