Conservative Legal Scholar Endorses Kamala Harris, Citing Jan. 6
Conservative J. Michael Luttig, a retired federal appeals court judge, announced Monday that he is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race, citing the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Luttig, whom Politico described as being in “the top of the conservative legal world,” was appointed by George H.W. Bush. He also worked as an attorney in the Reagan White House and clerked for conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Luttig is a counselor and special advisor for Coca-Cola and previously worked as senior advisor to Boeing. He says this will be his first time voting for a Democrat.
Luttig’s primary reason for endorsing Harris and opposing Trump is “the war on America’s Democracy that was instigated by the former president and his allies on January 6, 2021.”
“Regrettably, in the presidential election of 2024 there is only one political party and one candidate for the presidency that can claim the mantle of defender and protector of America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law,” Luttig said in a statement obtained by CNN. “As a result, I will unhesitatingly vote for the Democratic Party’s candidate for the Presidency of the United States, Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris.”
Luttig informally advised then-Vice President Mike Pence in the lead-up to Jan. 6, when Pence refused to go along with Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. The retired judge went on to testify before the House’s Jan. 6 committee.
Last year, Luttig and legal scholar Laurence H. Tribe wrote in the Atlantic that the Constitution prevents Trump from becoming president again under the 14th Amendment, which has a section that states that former government officials who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” cannot hold public office again.
Some states sought to bar Trump from their ballots on those same grounds — though the Supreme Court rejected those efforts, ruling that states cannot unilaterally enforce the 14th Amendment and bar insurrectionist candidates from running for office.
“The Republican candidate for the presidency and the Republican Party have literally taken America political hostage,” Luttig wrote in his endorsement of Harris, “threatening the Nation with the specter of another January 6, 2021 on January 6, 2025, if the former president again loses his campaign for the presidency by a vote of the American People.”
Luttig is not the only notable figure stepping across party lines. Other Republicans supporting Harris include former members of Congress Joe Walsh, Barbara Comstock, and Adam Kinzinger. Kinzinger will be speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week. Conservative commentator and former Trump supporter Rich Logis will also speak, and Republican political commentator Ana Navarro will be hosting a night of the convention.
A “Republicans for Harris” online rally last week was attended by 73,000 people, according to its organizers.
“The time for America’s choosing has come,” Luttig writes. “It is time for all Americans to stand and affirm whether they believe in American Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law, and want for America the same — or whether they do not.”
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