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Breakdown of Trust Led Judge Luttig To Clash With Bush
Wall Street Journal ^ | 5/11/06 | JESS BRAVIN and J. LYNN LUNSFORD

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 ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 4thcircuit; federaljudge; getoffthebench; judge; judicialactivism; judicialarrogance; judicialnominees; lastdaysofamerica; luttig; nointegrity; scotus; scous
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This confirms my high opinion of Luttig and my rapidly falling opinion of Bush and Gonzales.
1 posted on 05/11/2006 8:59:47 AM PDT by mathprof
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To: mathprof

Ouch...that's gonna leave a mark.


2 posted on 05/11/2006 9:02:47 AM PDT by el_texicano (Liberals, Socialist, DemocRATS, all touchy, feely, mind numbed robots, useless idiots all)
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To: mathprof

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.


3 posted on 05/11/2006 9:05:40 AM PDT by geezerwheezer (get up boys, we're burnin' daylight!!!)
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To: mathprof
The Bush Administration has truly lost its way and its doing it for political expediency.
4 posted on 05/11/2006 9:05:45 AM PDT by puppypusher
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To: mathprof

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.


5 posted on 05/11/2006 9:09:02 AM PDT by GretchenM (What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? Please meet my friend, Jesus.)
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To: mathprof

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.


6 posted on 05/11/2006 9:10:33 AM PDT by livius
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To: GretchenM

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.


7 posted on 05/11/2006 9:12:07 AM PDT by mathprof
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Comment #8 Removed by Moderator

To: mathprof
Right. Rumor, accusation and usbstatatiated innuendo validate your personal Hate Bush Always political whimsy. Pure and total BS from a typical garbage partisan hit piece from the Bush haters.

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.

9 posted on 05/11/2006 9:17:09 AM PDT by MNJohnnie (Yes, I AM Conservative. The Political Center is for the uninformed and cowardly)
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To: mathprof

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.


10 posted on 05/11/2006 9:18:29 AM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It. Supporting our Troops Means Praying for them to Win!)
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To: mathprof

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.


11 posted on 05/11/2006 9:19:34 AM PDT by dinoparty
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To: mathprof

Very strange behavior unbecoming of a judge. Good that he's going to be leaving the bench.


12 posted on 05/11/2006 9:22:29 AM PDT by Republican Wildcat
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To: MNJohnnie
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.

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.

13 posted on 05/11/2006 9:22:48 AM PDT by SevenMinusOne
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To: puppypusher; mathprof; Individual Rights in NJ
No, the Whine All The Time Choir merely has unrealistic childish expectations that their every political whimsy can be granted to them today. Bush is fine. Look at his Judge picks.

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.

14 posted on 05/11/2006 9:23:30 AM PDT by MNJohnnie (Yes, I AM Conservative. The Political Center is for the uninformed and cowardly)
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To: mathprof
Luttig retired?!? Well - son of a b*#^h !!!
Gonzales can kiss my red white and blue ANGLO butt!

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™.

15 posted on 05/11/2006 9:24:31 AM PDT by Condor51 (Better to fight for something than live for nothing - Gen. George S. Patton)
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To: mathprof
"my rapidly falling opinion of Bush and Gonzales."

Since 2004-09-25.

16 posted on 05/11/2006 9:25:11 AM PDT by StAnDeliver
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To: mathprof

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) .


17 posted on 05/11/2006 9:25:53 AM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
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To: Republican Wildcat
Very strange behavior unbecoming of a judge. Good that he's going to be leaving the bench.

Agreed. If Luttig wants to be president, he can quit and run for the job.

18 posted on 05/11/2006 9:26:44 AM PDT by sinkspur ( OK. You've had your drink. Now why don't you tell your Godfather what everybody else already knows?)
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To: mathprof

Please point out to me where I said or suggested anyone should blindly follow this or any other president.


19 posted on 05/11/2006 9:26:46 AM PDT by GretchenM (What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? Please meet my friend, Jesus.)
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To: StAnDeliver

Thank you for your post at #16.

Says it all, I think.


20 posted on 05/11/2006 9:27:48 AM PDT by GretchenM (What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? Please meet my friend, Jesus.)
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