Short Circuit: Breakdown of Trust Led Judge Luttig To Clash With Bush

Wall Street Journal Online ^ | 5/11/2006 | Jess Bravin & J. Lynn Lunsford

[Paul Ross]

McLEAN, Va. -- 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.

[Paul Ross]

The part that really should have been in the exerpt:

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. 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.

COMMENT: Gonzales is almost as bad as Harriet Meiers.

[Steely Tom]

Sorry, I don't see the problem. Could you explain it to the non-lawyer contingent?

[MNJohnnie]

About the 3rd posting of an utterly useless story. Luttig is going because he can make about 4 times as much money as a Boeing Senior VP even before you talk Stock Options and perks. This is a nonsensical attempt to use Luttig to find yet another excuse to whine at Bush. It utter nonsense. It is the MONEY children and nothing else. No dark plots, no standing on supposed principals JUST M-O-N-E-Y.

[nikos1121]

Excuse me,

Sooner or later, wouldn't it be proper to press charges on this man? I mean surely you're not saying that keeping him under house arrest indefinitely was the objective here with this man?

[sinkspur]

Deciding to charge or not charge a federal suspect is the purview of the executive branch.

Luttig is trying to sound high-minded when all he's really doing is grabbing for the brass ring at Boeing.

[dinoparty]

Huh?
What did he do wrong here? Luttig might be smart and believe the right things constitutionally, but he simply had a temper tantrum in this instance because he thought his honor was violated.

[Paul Ross]

Sorry, I don't see the problem. Could you explain it to the non-lawyer contingent?

The Judge went way out on a limb to defend not just conservative principle, but the well-meaning bona fides of the executive officers pushing the original position to his fellow judges of the legitimacy and need for the military panels.

The effect of Gonzales reversal of position for this case is to say, "never mind" and pull the rug right out from under the only real friend the Administration had in the 4th Circuit. And undermines there ever being any use of their 4th Circuit opinion that Luttig had engineered...personally.

[dinoparty]

Why do the eventual criminal charges against Padilla undercut any claim that the executive has said power? That doesn't make sense to me.

[OldFriend]

The elites doing their thing. Throwing tantrums when they don't get their way.

Bye bye Luttig.

Truth be told he was not going to be getting on the USSC anytime soon.

The next appointment will be a conservative woman.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Luttig seems to be arguing that he ruled on a constitutional matter based on his feelings about the specific applicant (Padilla), rather than on the merits of the constitutional argument (that the executive has a right in time of war to treat prisoners of war in military tribunals, OR turn them over to the civilian courts, when and as the see fit.

Luttig said they HAD that right, but when they used it in a way he found disconcerting, he tried to usurp the executive by ruling they had no right to send him to civilian court.

So, who was right? Well, according to the Supreme Court, the administration was right, and Luttig was wrong.

Luttig now knows he has no room for advancement, and has taken a good career move.

[Paul Ross]

Deciding to charge or not charge a federal suspect is the purview of the executive branch.

Indeed it is. But to abandon the high ground after a key legal victory is won at personal cost in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal is neither seemly, intelligent or particularly worthy of this Administration.

Luttig is trying to sound high-minded when all he's really doing is grabbing for the brass ring at Boeing.

Actually, his resignation speech can be found here and he is in fact saying nothing about any disagreements or disappointments with the administration's sudden and embarassing reversal of its legal handling of the Padilla case.

There are other readings of the judicial tea leaves in his resignation here

[Paul Ross]

Sooner or later, wouldn't it be proper to press charges on this man?

Which is what the military panels could do a hell of a lot faster than what is now going to happen.

[Paul Ross]

Why do the eventual criminal charges against Padilla undercut any claim that the executive has said power? That doesn't make sense to me.

The Administration seems to lack the courage of its supposed legal convictions.

And if they refuse to follow through in this case...effectively they are creating a defacto defeat for their advocacy of executive war powers.

[Paul Ross]

Bye bye Luttig.
Truth be told he was not going to be getting on the USSC anytime soon.

I think that is well understood...and its not a plus. It is an unqualified negative, a detriment to the President's credibility on judicial appointments. BOHICA.

The next appointment will be a conservative woman.

Yawn. More Glass Ceiling arguments to put in a phoney like Harriet Meiers? Give it a rest. It will not be permitted. No matter how stubborn Laura Bush gets....

Now if he had the guts to put up a true conservative, say a clone of Phyllis Schlafly, Laura Ingraham, or Ann Coulter....

[sinkspur]

But to abandon the high ground after a key legal victory is won at personal cost in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal is neither seemly, intelligent or particularly worthy of this Administration.

So the Supreme Court abandoned the high ground, too? They, after all, agreed with the Bush administration, contra Luttig.

Luttig's friends do him no good service putting this out. It makes him look petty and childish.

[dinoparty]

I don't agree. Having the power has nothing to do with the decision to utilize it in a particular case.

[Paul Ross]

Huh? What did he do wrong here?

Gonzales reversed the case handling of the Padilla case as set up by John Ashcroft, shunting him into criminal treatment, rather than military after he had been held that way for a lengthy period. Very lengthy. If he was entitled to criminal defense rights, where were his normal constitutional privileges? (I know, I'm gagging too... he hardly deserves them, but legally he gets them if treated as a mere "criminal").

Luttig might be smart and believe the right things constitutionally, but he simply had a temper tantrum in this instance because he thought his honor was violated.

No, he was standing for the principle. Technically, the reversal of the position by the administration almost puts the previous legal affidavits they made into a state of such doubt that 'contempt of court' and 'perjury' had to be dancing in the minds of the other judges on the 4th Circuit Panel.... so this wasn't just a single judge's honor being 'violated'...it was the Administration practically impeaching itself...and too arrogant, or ignorant, to realize it was doing so.

They epitomize the charachter Pogo opining..."we have met the enemy...and he is us!"

With friends like Gonzales and Meiers...who needs enemies??!

[Republican Wildcat]

If true, this is behavior unbecoming of a judge and we should all be glad he's off of the bench.

[Alberta's Child]

Deciding to charge or not charge a federal suspect is the purview of the executive branch.

Deciding whether or not this Federal suspect is kept in custody indefinitely -- or has his case adjudicated in a manner that doesn't meet Constitutional scrutiny -- is not.

[Alberta's Child]

Think of the Rush Limbaugh case, where the prosecutor went to great lengths in various courts to pursue (and then make public) Rush's medical records, ostensibly on the grounds that these were part of a major investigation into some serious drug-peddling operation.

When the prosecutor ultimately filed minimal charges involving a minor case of prescription drug possession, Rush had every reason to be p!ssed off to no end about the prosecutor's conduct -- and any judge with an ounce of credibility would toss the prosecutor out of his courtroom.