Statute of Frogs

I don’t have much to add to the reports here and here about Michael Luttig’s resignation from the Fourth Circuit, but it’s such big news that I think I have to at least mention it.  It’s true that his new job at Boeing will likely pay nearly ten times the $175,100 he was paid as a federal appeals court judge, but I can’t really imagine giving up the constitutional job security of life on the federal bench to go to the corporate world.  Maybe it’s just that I think this is one of the best jobs imagineable, but I can’t see it.  I think this must have been running through Judge Luttig’s mind for a few years now and, in the wake of the Alito and Roberts nominations, he’s decided it’s not worth waiting around for a SCOTUS nomination that’s unlikely to ever come.

I feel bad for his clerks, though.  The surest path to a Supreme Court clerkship passed through Judge Luttig’s chambers.  Though I’m sure they’ll have no shortage of opportunities available to them, it may derail a few Supreme Court clerkship dreams.