Judge J. Michael Luttig in The Atlantic on the “President for Life”

Society for the Rule of Law Institute Board Member Judge J. Michael Luttig was in The Atlantic warning that Donald Trump is trying to amass the powers of a king.

Writing that “[s]ince his second inauguration, Donald Trump has seized authoritarian control over the federal government and demanded the obedience of the other powerful institutions of American society—universities, law firms, media companies,” Judge Luttig offers a stark and deeply informed assessment of the constitutional stakes facing the American republic under the nation’s 47th president. Drawing on decades of public service—including senior roles in multiple presidential administrations and service on the federal bench—Judge Luttig situates present events within the constitutional design that the Founders crafted to prevent the rise of unchecked executive power.

Throughout the piece, Judge Luttig frames these developments not as partisan disputes but as a challenge to the foundational principle that, in America, “the law is king.” Drawing on Jefferson, Madison, Paine, and Lincoln, he argues that the safeguarding of the republic ultimately depends on the civic virtue and resolve of the American people. Institutions matter, but they endure only if the public insists on constitutional fidelity from those who hold the nation’s highest office.

Judge Luttig ends with a clarion call: “If America is to long endure, we must summon our courage, our fearlessness, our hope, our spirited sense of invulnerability to political enthrall, and, most important, our abiding faith in the divine providence of this nation.”

Read the article here.