Twenty-seven truths about America, our Democracy and Rule of Law, and our rights, freedoms, and liberties.
Jul 02, 2025
On the eve of January 6, 2021, Judge Michael Luttig received an urgent message from Vice President Mike Pence’s office: Could he please make public his confidential advice to Pence that the vice president had no legal authority to overturn the 2020 election? Pence was under enormous pressure from Donald Trump to reverse the results, and he hoped that the analysis from Luttig, one of the most respected voices in American law, could thwart the effort. Luttig tweeted out his views, and Pence cited the Tweets in his letter to the nation as he left the White House for the U.S. Capitol as evidence that he couldn’t block certification of the election.
In 2021, during his first extensive public interview of his career—over three hours!— Luttig told me the incredible story of the Tweets that helped stop the coup of the 2020 presidential election. The story has been told many times since then, including during Luttig’s widely acclaimed testimony before the January 6th Committee, but one humorous detail often gets left out: Luttig didn’t know how to use Twitter. So before he could send what became some of the most important Tweets in history, Luttig had to call his son for tech support to walk him through the process.
Today, America finds itself at another historic moment—another crisis—and Judge Luttig is once again the country’s most indispensable public scholar explaining the law to an American public bewildered by the actions of a lawless president. And once again, Judge Luttig is embracing a new medium to share his views with a wider audience. With some nudging from me, I’m pleased to report that Luttig is turning to Substack as a platform for his writing, which has never been more important.
His first foray on Substack is the extraordinary piece below that marks Independence Day 2025. It is not an essay or op-ed or polemic of any kind. Rather, it is a statement of truths that we Americans hold to be self-evident on this July 4—the eve of America’s founding and the celebration of its 250th anniversary—and it’s a jarring exposition of how closely the modern-day truths parallel the American Colonists’ original list of self-evident truths of freedom and of tyranny.
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. I believe Luttig’s piece will be of historic significance, and Telos News is enormously proud to publish it. Please share it widely.
— Ryan Lizza
empowerment & inner transformation... 
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