Thumbing through the stack of “amicus” briefs in the Donald Trump ballot case set to be argued next week, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court will find the familiar name of J. Michael Luttig. 

A well-known figure in the conservative legal world, Luttig sat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1991 to 2006 after serving in the Reagan White House and leading the Department of Justice’s prestigious Office of Legal Counsel. The President George H. W. Bush appointee’s chambers were a trusted source of clerks for conservative Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, and Luttig was even a contender for the high court at one point.