Conservative former Judge J. Michael Luttig endorses Harris

Retired federal Judge J. Michael Luttig — a longtime conservative jurist — endorsed Vice President Harris’s bid for president Monday, saying she’s the only major candidate who “can claim the mantle of defender and protector of America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law.”

“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 wrote in a statement obtained Monday by CNN.

 Luttig said he is prioritizing the safeguarding of democracy over any other policy issue and called on the American public to do the same.

“In voting for Vice President Harris, I assume that her public policy views are vastly different from my own, but I am indifferent in this election as to her policy views on any issues other than America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law, as I believe all Americans should be,” he said.

Luttig — who was named to the bench by former President George H. W. Bush — has become one of the most prominent conservative voices vocally opposing former President Trump.

Since testifying before the Jan. 6 select committee investigating efforts to overturn the election, Luttig has repeatedly made the case that the former president is unfit for office and, according to Luttig’s reading of the Constitution, ineligible to serve as commander in chief under the 14th Amendment.

Luttig said members of his party “have chosen as their standard bearer the one man who is singularly unfit to embody and represent not only to the Nation, but to the world, America’s sacred Democracy, Constitution, and Rule of Law.”

In his Monday statement, Luttig criticized political pundits and “opportunists” who try to convince the American public that “the only thing that matters in this presidential election is the candidates’ different positions on the sundry policies of the day.”

“All, as if nothing had come before,” he continued. “We Americans know all too well what has come before. We understand what the political class does not want us to understand. That in the presidential election of 2024, the candidates’ policy differences are the least that matters to the United States of America.”

The Hill has reached out to Luttig for comment.

Updated at 1:48 p.m. EDT