Judge Luttig

The big legal surprise from Wednesday was J. Michael Luttig's resignation from the Fourth Circuit. The Washington Post story on the matter is here; his letter of resignation can be found here. According to the Post, friends of Luttig attribute his decision to financial considerations (he'll be earning seven figures as general counsel at Boeing) and disappointment at not being named to fill one of the recent SCOTUS vacancies.

Of course, the Post's explanations could well be wrong; no one except Luttig can be certain about his reasons. In any event, Judge Luttig (pronounced "loo-tig") was an important intellectual force in the judiciary and a fine judge generally. His retirement is a significant loss to the Fourth Circuit, and those of us who hold Federalist Society-type beliefs should hope that will he continue to produce legal scholarship at a significant pace.