Leading conservative judge, J. Michael Luttig, delivers magisterial indictment of Donald Trump's assault on the Rule of Law
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A preeminent conservative judge, J. Michael Luttig, formerly a member of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, has delivered a comprehensive and blistering indictment of Donald Trump’s assault on the Rule of Law.
Judge Luttig, a leading conservative authority on American Constitutional Law, has produced a powerful critique of Trump’s massive attack on the Rule of Law.
In its scope and inclusiveness, and with its extraordinary power of argument coupled with the great authority of its author, Judge Luttig’s critique is a historic document that will be read for decades to come.
See,
Michael Luttig, “THE END OF RULE OF LAW IN AMERICA; The 47th president seems to wish he were king—and he is willing to destroy what is precious about this country to get what he wants,” The Atlantic, May 14, 2025.
The critique should be read, and reread, in its entirety. It is a long read. It doesn’t have to be read all at once. But it should be read carefully, and lead to deep reflection, and action.
Toward the beginning of his article Luttig states,
This is not a man who respects the rule of law, nor one who seeks to understand it.
Thus far, Trump’s presidency has been a reign of lawless aggression by a tyrannical wannabe king, a rampage of presidential lawlessness in which Trump has proudly wielded the powers of the office and the federal government to persecute his enemies, while at the same time pardoning, glorifying, and favoring his political allies and friends—among them those who attacked the U.S. Capitol during the insurrection that Trump fomented on January 6, 2021. The president’s utter contempt for the Constitution and laws of the United States has been on spectacular display since Inauguration Day.
…
Until Trump exits public life altogether, it cannot be said either that America is a thriving democracy or that it has a government “of laws, not of men.”
While Judge Luttig does not explicitly call for the impeachment and removal from office of President Trump, it is clear that removal is the remedy the American people urgently need to pursue in order to save their democracy.
In conclusion, Luttig writes,
After these first three tyrannical, lawless months of this presidency, surely Americans can understand now that Donald Trump is going to continue to decimate America for the next three-plus years. He will continue his assault on America, its democracy, and rule of law until the American people finally rise up and say, “No more.”
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About the Author
James Rowles is a former Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and professor of international law at other universities.
He studied the history of Nazi Germany at Stanford, and has studied and worked on human rights, judicial reform, and access to justice projects in many countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and in Afghanistan and Russia. At Harvard Law School, he taught a course on “Law, Human Rights, and the Struggle for Democracy in Latin America”.
At the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the OAS, he worked on human rights cases involving forced disappearances, executions, and torture in a number of authoritarian countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Recent Books by the Author
James P. Rowles, The Rape of American Democracy: Republican Actions and Democratic Failures, 2016-2021 (2024). Available on Amazon, and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.
James P. Rowles, Don’t Be Stupid. Pay Attention, Damn It! Advice for Undecided Voters and Voters Leaning Toward Trump (2024). Available on Amazon,and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.
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