Judge Luttig: 'We the People' are the final backstop for American democracy

While the Supreme Court has largely enabled Trump’s power grab, lower-court judges have risen to the moment, calling out government lies and defending the Constitution under historic pressure. Former federal judge Michael Luttig notes that, in the absence of a Supreme Court willing to confront Trump’s abuses, lower courts have taken the extraordinary step of speaking directly to the American people through their opinions— breaking with centuries of judicial tradition — because, as he puts it, it is a paramount obligation of federal judges ”to condemn what’s happening in America today.” If the Supreme Court fails to meet the moment, Luttig is blunt about who is left to defend democracy: “It’s we the people in whom all power resides,“ he says. “If the Supreme Court will not come to the aid o