Revolving Door?

Here's an interesting take on yesterday's news that well-known conservative Judge Michael Luttig is leaving his seat on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to become Boeing's general counsel. Here is the key quote: "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."

This overstates the case a bit, and, of course, the life tenure that federal judges hold cannot be turned into a life sentence. But job changes like Luttig's may happen more frequently in the years ahead. I don't know what the statistics would show, but my sense is that judges are being appointed at younger ages than used to be the case, when lawyers received such appointments only after legal careers of some note. That seems less common now, with current controversial appointee Brett Kavanaugh, who is 41 but who was first nominated at 38, being the most recent example of this trend.