Rightwing Appeals Court Judge Michel Luttig, on the short list for the Supreme Court,
announced his resignation from the Fourth Circuit to become general counsel for Boeing, a disgusting example of the corrupt revolving door extending to the federal bench.
Judgeships should be for life. Any expectation by a judge that they will leave for private practice means that any of their decisions are suspect as currying favor for a future job offer.
And what's problematic is that Luttig has multiple rulings where Boeing's interests were at stake:
- For example, in a case in 1998 of McDonnell Douglas (recently acquired by Boeing), Luttig signed onto an opinion barring a husband from suing the company for a defective test aircraft crashing and killing his wife. Emory Bros. v. McDonnell Douglas, 148 F.3d 347.
- In 1997, Luttig signed onto a decision affirming summary judgement in favor of a subcontractor of Boeing, Kaiser Aero v. Alliant, 1997 U.S. App. LEXIS 39028
- In 1997, in another case involving Boeing subcontracting work from Grumman, Luttig signed onto another case favoring Boeing. Lake Fairfax Seven v. Grumman Aerospace, 41 Cont. Cas. Fed. (CCH) P77.
And no doubt there are many other cases with a less prominent named role for Boeing where its legal interests were at stake.
If judges can be rewarded with high-priced jobs for pro-corporate rulings, the whole judicial system is a farce.
Update: Some commentators seem to think that as long as there is no quid pro quo, judges sliding off to corporate jobs can't be a problem. But what if every federal appeals judge knew that corporate America would find a nice cushy job for them if their rulings were in line with those business interests? You don't need quid pro quo to end up with a serious tilt of judicial rulings if corporate jobs are an available retirement plan for judges.
Sure- raise federal salaries if that's what's is needed to get the best people, but I suspect there are plenty of great advocates for the public interest who would have no problem with a lifetime job where they get to engage all the great issues of the day.