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.
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