Judge Not

Here's a discussion about one of my all-time law-related pet peeves. Isn't it really pretty simple? If you are an active or retired judge, you should be called "judge." If, however, you resign from the bench to work at a law firm or, as the Fourth Circuit's Michael Luttig just did, for a big corporation, then obviously you are no longer a judge, so the title should not be used.

The worst part of the practice is that the label "judge" is usually used in order to cloak its user with an air of impartiality that, in fact, he or she has abandoned. For example, in the late 1990s, you frequently heard Clinton bashers refer to Kenneth Starr as "Judge" Starr, as if that made what he was doing more legitimate. I'm not saying it wasn't legitimate, just that Kenneth Starr is no more a judge than I am, and if I used that term I would be disciplined by the bar for misleading clients and the public. The same rules should apply to those who have chosen to leave the bench for private practice, the business world, or some other non-judicial endeavor.