Judge Luttig: "Almost every single right, privilege, and liberty that we Americans have enjoyed for the past 250 years is under direct attack."

Watch Luttig's MSNBC interview with Ali Velshi.

Yesterday, Ali Velshi spent 15 minutes—an eternity on cable news—dissecting Judge Michael Luttig’s recent piece for Telos News, “The Self-Evident Truths of Freedom—and of Tyranny,” and interviewing Judge Luttig.

It was an excellent explanation of the Luttig treatise and an excellent interview of the Judge, and I wanted to make sure Telos readers could watch the video and read the edited transcript that I’ve included below.

“I implore all of our viewers to take some time and to read this very, very carefully,” Velshi said at the end of the segment.

I agree. Thanks to

Ali Velshi

for his careful attention to the article and for his shoutout to me and to Telos News.

Click above to watch the clip.

ALI VELSHI: Today, the country is facing a historic test, and former Federal Judge Michael Luttig has emerged as one of the most important public voices helping Americans understand the rule of law in the face of a president who’s determined to place himself above it.

At this fragile moment when it feels as though the sands of democracy are slipping through the hourglass, Luttig has offered something rare and precious, a powerful reflection on what those founding words and sentiments from 1776 mean today.

In a piece titled “The Self-Evident Truths of Freedom—and of Tyranny,” Luttig draws a direct line from 1776 to today, revisiting the structure and spirit of the original Declaration to name the challenges that are now confronting American democracy.

It’s thoughtful, it’s timely, and it demands every American’s attention. It’s the kind of circumspection work likely designed for the annals of history as a reflection of this critical moment in our history.

According to longtime political reporter Ryan Lizza, who published Luttig's work on his site, Telos, “This is not a piece that should be skimmed or scanned. Luttig is writing for the ages. I recommend you take some time away from the crush of news, find a quiet place without distractions, and read this piece carefully. That’s when the power of what Luttig has written will hit you.”

In crafting his work, Luttig follows the structure of the original Declaration of Independence, beginning with a preamble that reminds us why our forebears rejected the rule of a king. Then presenting a clear and compelling outline of the core principles that define our democracy. By drawing a parallel to the founders’ break from King George’s tyranny, Luttig builds a modern declaration that identifies what must be protected to prevent tyranny today.

He writes, “On July 4, 1776 our fellow Americans declared their independence from the British Empire and its ruling monarchy. Thus began the American Revolutionary War against Great Britain to secure America’s independence from the tyrannical rule of King George III. On that first Independence Day, almost 250 years ago, America freed itself forever from the bondage and oppression of tyrannical rule by monarchs and kings. There would never be another king in the United States of America.”

Luttig goes on to present a list of principles essential to sustaining our democracy. He revisits the Founders’ grievances, translating them into 27 self-evident truths about freedom and tyranny that apply today more than ever.

This carefully curated list not only grounds Luttig’s points historically, it lays out clearly what must be preserved and defended now, making his work both a powerful historical reflection and a practical guide for today’s challenges. These include the rule of law as the true sovereign, as opposed to rulers. As Luttig puts it, “In America, the rule of law is king.” …

More than two centuries after Americans adopted the Declaration of Independence, one of the nation’s great legal minds invites us to reengage with the ideals at the heart of our founding charter. Luttig declares, forcefully, “The people are not the enemy of the government. Rather, the government that regards the people as its enemy is itself the enemy of the people.”

Fifty states lie at Lady Liberty’s feet, and throughout our history, her values, the envy of the world, have been tested and retested. Ultimately, it has been entirely up to us to decide whether those values remain just words on paper or a living promise. So that one day, future generations, the inheritors of this great experiment, can look up at those same fireworks without having to wonder whether democracy will collapse in their lifetime.

ALI VELSHI: It’s a call to action. This is not just sort of a historical analysis you’ve done. You’re sort of telling people that we need to channel our forefathers. We have to channel the colonists who said, “We don’t believe in the system under which we’re living, but it’s up to us to change it.”

JUDGE LUTTIG: Ali, that’s correct. The words and the ideas of the Declaration of Independence have never before in 250 years since they they were penned, been more profound and more relevant than they are today. There is no American, no person who can lay claim to the words and the ideas of the Declaration of Independence, notwithstanding that many people today claim that they have special claim to those words and ideas. These words and these ideas will forever be those of the American people, Ali.

ALI VELSHI: In 1776, the founders pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor—their words. Talk to me about what we need to be prepared to sacrifice right now in order to defend what we believe in. And I say this to you as somebody who did sacrifice in dealing with January 6. That cost you personally, in terms of threats, in terms of reputation. You decided that your fealty to what this country is is more important than certain other things.

JUDGE LUTTIG: Well, Ali, it should never be the case in the United States of America that anyone should have to sacrifice their lives in the way that our American colonists did. That’s unthinkable, and I don’t believe, I certainly don’t hope that anyone would have to sacrifice their lives today or ever again.

But picking up on the words of the Declaration of Independence that you just recited, I do believe that today that all Americans should be prepared to sacrifice their sacred honor, if you will, to defend the ideals of the Declaration of Independence in the way that the American colonists did almost 250 years ago.

It bears noting, Ali, as you know well, that next year, 2026, America will celebrate its 250th anniversary since its founding in 1776. And the nation is preparing, at this moment, a national celebration of that event. It’s a timely place for us to be reminded of the Declaration of Independence and all that it says and stands for, as we come to that 250th celebration.

ALI VELSHI: Reading your piece, it is both a warning and a blueprint. I’m going to choose today to focus on the blueprint part. If you could ask every American who has read this or is watching this to do something as a result of that, what do you think that something should be? And obviously it’s different for different people, depending on what your position in life is. But what do you want people to take in terms of a call to action?

JUDGE LUTTIG: The first thing, and the thing of overarching importance, is that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States give all power—all power—to “We the People.” It gives no power whatsoever to our government. We set up self governance under a democracy almost 250 years ago, and in my view, the power has drifted to the government and away from the people.

So in terms of a call of action today, Ali, what I would hope the American people would do is focus on the 27 grievances of the American colonists against the British Empire and King George III. Think about those particular grievances, those truths of tyranny, and ask themselves how far astray we have gone today.

ALI VELSHI: One of the interesting parts about then and now is that this government is working very, very hard to silence dissent. You and I have talked about this several times. Articulating that dissent was core to creating this declaration of independence so that we could become a self-governing country. That is under pressure again. Americans are being warned, if you dissent—as a judge, as a prosecutor, as a journalist, as a political opponent, as a student—we will come for you.

JUDGE LUTTIG: Ali, almost every single right, privilege, and liberty that we Americans have enjoyed for the past 250 years is under direct attack, and that will be evident to the American people if they simply read the original 27 grievances in the Declaration of Independence. If they have a moment to read what I have written, which is a juxtaposition of those grievances with our rights, liberties and freedoms today, the message will be clear that we are on the edge today, at least, of losing the Republic that we created ourselves, that we the people created, Ali.

ALI VELSHI: Judge, is the answer simply politics? Is it elections, or is it something more?

JUDGE LUTTIG: There’s nothing simple about it, let alone politics. Simple politics? No. Politics with a capital P, the way that was intended by the our Founders and the Framers of our Constitution? Yes. It is a matter of politics with a capital P, in my view, the view of one man alone.

Our elected politicians, if you want to call them that, have followed like lemmings those who would walk this country off a cliff toward tyranny. All it takes, and I said this at the time of my congressional testimony some years ago, all it takes is the courage of a small group of our elected politicians who have the will and the courage and the commitment to America to stand tall and speak out. But of course, as you know, since the time that I asked for that, not one single politician has done so. And that’s why in my view, Ali, the main problem and the main issue for America today is that we have no leader and we have no leadership.

ALI VELSHI: I implore all of our viewers to take some time and to read this very, very carefully, and I thank you for writing it, Judge.