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Posted on 05/11/2006 8:59:45 AM PDT by mathprof
After Fight in Terrorism Case, Conservative Star Gives Up Court Seat for Boeing Job.
On Nov. 22, U.S. Circuit Judge J. Michael Luttig was at work in his chambers here when he received a telephone call telling him to switch on the television. There, he saw Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announce that the government would file charges against Jose Padilla in a federal court -- treating the accused terrorist like a normal criminal suspect.
The judge was stunned. Two months earlier, he had written a landmark opinion saying the government could hold Mr. Padilla without charge in a military brig. (Read the opinion.1) The decision validated President Bush's claim that he could set aside Mr. Padilla's constitutional rights in the name of national security. The judge assumed the government had a compelling reason to consider the suspect an extraordinary threat. Now Mr. Gonzales wanted the courts to forget the whole case.
It didn't take long for the judge's anger to burst out into the open. The next month he wrote that moves such as the attorney general's cast doubt on the Bush administration's "credibility before the courts." Judge Luttig tried to block Mr. Padilla's transfer to civilian custody from the brig. (Read the opinion.2) The administration's top litigator fired back that the judge "defies both law and logic."
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. The 51-year-old judge, once considered a likely Bush nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, stepped down from his lifetime seat on the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to start a new career in Chicago as general counsel for Boeing Co.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Ouch...that's gonna leave a mark.
It do make you wonder, don't it? I can't figure out Gonzales' hold at DOJ, but it really is beginning to suck, big time. DOJ seems to be leaderless and going in two different directions, does the left hand know what the right hand is doing? I don't think so.
You do the conservative cause no justice to post such a remark as the one following the Luttig article.
Is Bush fallible? Duh. Is he better than John Kerry or any other democrat? Dubble duhh.
It is time for all true conservatives to stand in support of the overall presidency and for those who pray, to PRAY favor on this president and WISDOM for all his decisions. Nobody's going to get it right all the time except the Lord Himself. Does that mean we sit around and kill off our good leaders by a thousand cuts of criticism?
It is time to wake up and support those who are doing the best they know to do to keep this country safe and on the right track.
Interesting. I have been consistently underwhelmed by Gonzales. The problem is that Bush, once he appoints someone, pretty much hands over the reins to that person and doesn't intervene until things get really, really bad. I don't get the feeling that Gonzales is doing Bush's bidding, but simply that Bush is letting him do whatever he wants, and there's no consistent policy.
Reno was dumb as a post, but she was Clinton's attack dog and she was vicious and got a lot of his truly ugly deeds done for him. Bush needs somebody who will get decent work done for him, but he never seems to be able to find that person or hold anyone to account.
Do you remember when Bush told us that Harriet Myers was the best person for the open SCOUS seat. Were we supposed to blindly support him then too? My opinion of Bush started to fall about that time. I haven't given up on him, and, of course, I feel that he's much better than JF Kerry.
How about a dose of reality for the knee jerk Bush Haters? Luttig will make about 4 times as much MONEY as a Boeing VP even BEFORE you total up his perks and stock bonuses. That's the reality and motivation, not any of the wacko Hate Bush rantings from the Perpetual Whiners.
The reverse for me.
alMuhajir is a terrorist, formerly named Padilla, who has been trained and deployed by al Qaeda.
If the president wants to keep him in brig or to try him in civil court (if he thinks that's the best way to nail him), then I'm all for it.
The supreme court did not disagree with the president.
This is B.S. Looks like even Luttig suffers from "Judge-itis". Why can't the executive branch change its mind about the best way to handle a terrorist suspect? The fact that they decided to bring him into regular court does not mean that they did not believe at one time, at least, that he was a national security threat.
Very strange behavior unbecoming of a judge. Good that he's going to be leaving the bench.
Will you stop talking sense! Please, will you stop making sense with your posts! There is a small segment (becoming smaller by the day and the GOP base is once again coming back together)...but this small segment of GWB bashes simply don't like the idea of little annoyances like facts and common sense to get in the way of their silly opinions / attacks.
It is the 100%er with their childish "My way or the high way" who have lost all touch with political reality. They merely wander around look for the next cause to scream and bitch and cry at Bush about. They have become either unwittingly, or knowingly, the political propaganda allies of the Democrat Party
So they have become completely politically irrelevant to the Conservatives. Since they bitch at everything and support NOTHING, there is no reason to waste any time on them. They have made themselves completely politically irrelevant with their perpetual whining and bitching.
There the door crybaby's. Don't let it it your butts on the way out.
And if Dubya thinks he can appoint Gonzo for the next SCOTUS vacancy, he better fugetaboutit - and pronto. The Harriet Myers outrage is going to look like a Camp Fire Girl bake sale in comparison.
I swear, the whole administration must be on STOO-PID Pills™.
Since 2004-09-25.
What Bush did with Padilla may have been out of political expediency -- that's not the point.
It wasn't a judge's decision to make. Either the President can use military tribunals, or he can't. That ruling can't be based on how "extraordinary" the case is.
So when Bush changed his mind (or when they had finished with Padilla) and decided to turn him over to a civilian court, Luttig and the 4th circuit had no power to overrule him. Nothing in the case or the decision REQUIRED them to keep Padilla in military tribunal.
So, Luttig's decision to do so, in what this article says was in anger, did defy logic and reason.
Luttig seems like a fine conservative, and a fine person. But it seems he fell into the trap of the imperial judiciary, thinking he, not the executive, should be the final arbitor of what happens in the country (in this case) .
Agreed. If Luttig wants to be president, he can quit and run for the job.
Please point out to me where I said or suggested anyone should blindly follow this or any other president.
Thank you for your post at #16.
Says it all, I think.
too bad
i would have loved to see this guy on the Supreme Court
Indeed, didn't the reversal of approach shortstop a potentially disastrous ruling that might have freed ALL those being held? Sounds to me like sour grapes by the judge and he couldn't fathom the "big picture." Was he more interested in his legacy than helping the administration nagivate the legal minefields that prevent advancement in the WOT?
"Crelm toothpaste, with
. the miracle ingredient,
... F r a u d u l i n! "
So now Luttig is a hater too?
Amen.
It's total bull.
This article is in direct conflict with the praise Luttig offered Bush, in extensive fashion, for Bush in his resignation comments.
Why trust an article rather than the judge's words themselves?
Methinks people are in a mode of hearing what they want to hear, and then imagining whatever is missing that they wanted to hear but didn't.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1137836001716
Here's a truthful account of Luttig's resignation- from Luttig.
Excellent remarks and so true.
Pure and total BS from a typical garbage partisan hit piece from the Bush haters.
So true MNJ!
I am to believe that a true conservative like Luttig would simply give up his life's cause and leave for the private sector because he is upset? Give me a break. All of these trolls who sit and wait for any post that is even remotely negative towards Bush make me sick. GO BACK TO DU.
snicker.....
You must be one who is easily swayed.
re post #14... thanks for the morning laugh.
I expect the good judge regined to make the big bucks, If he did I can't blame him for that. I doubt he resigned over this particular case. If and its a big if, these facts are correct then thank God this guy never got on the Court A little too much of a ego if you ask me.
Also, I think COnservatives can have objectives to the Presidents powers he wants. I have had the theory for a while that Bush asks gfor the moon so he can get something reasonable in the end. I expect that he didnt resign over that.
He's self-absorbed.
He doesn't get to decide what decisions the executive branch gets to make, when faced with two legal alternatives.
I hope he makes lots of money and stays out of our judicial system.
Very short-sighted of Luttig. I'm thinking he's reading the polls, believes a democrat will win in 08, and what the heck, he'll never make it to the Supremes anyway. He's going for the bucks after 15 or so years on the 4th Circuit, ready to cash in. And I don't fault him.
But no way am I ready to jump on Bush/Gonzales for honking big decisions they must make. We don't know what's behind their latest on Padillo, but I'm sure the implications range far beyond what happens to him. Far beyond Luttig as well. I thank God every day this president does not base decisions on what's popular with the people, or with judges.
Although you are correct, you point seems to damn Bush with faint praise. When all you've really got going for you is that you're not quite as bad as the alternitive, that doesn't say much. (not that I don't think Bush has other things going for him, the "he's not as bad as a dem would be" is not much of a defense or reason to vote for any political candidate.)
Doncha know you don't have to SAY it; they just assume that's what you think if you don't agree with them.
It's the Money. It all about the MONEY. NOTHING else. Not some great deep hidden statement of principal that validate the knee jerk feverish Bush hate of the Perpetual Whiners. It's about how much MONEY Luttig will now be making
I don't hate Bush. I merely said that my opinion of him has been falling. Sorry if that upsets you.
The judge would have no reason to resign because he didn't like something the Bush administration did in a case before him.
The judge did not work for the Bush administration. He was in an absolutely separate branch of government, and if he wanted to he could sit on the bench and launch as many thunderbolts as he pleased at the administration or any other litigant.
Get back to me when he volunteers his time to an anti Bush advocacy group, but please don't tell me the guy went to Boeing on principle.
My reaction was that the judge needs to re-read the first three Articles of the Constitution. His job was to judge the legality of an act, not its desirability.
One would believe that FReepers think judges should stick to the judiciary and not try and play executive. No loss here.
Who is taking the stupid pills? The President or a Judge believing he is running the executive branch? Seems clear as a bell.
And why exactly should the judiciary have to "trust" the executive? Just interprete the laws and constitution and leave the other branch alone.
Unless you openly declare blind allegiance to the party, you are branded a hater, a racist, a xenophobe, a homophobe, a isolationist, woman-hater, arab-hater, hispanic-hater, etc etc.
I have yet to see the same chorus differ on anything with the WH whatsoever.
Riiight a 10 million dollar salary has nothing to do with it.
Surely you cannot doubt the wisdom of the Nuke Mexico City crowd?
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