Former judge to visit W&L campus to discuss Jan. 6, potential constitutional crisis

Students at Washington and Lee University in Lexington will be visited next week by a former federal appellate judge who counseled former Vice President Mike Pence in the days leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.

The Honorable J. Michael Luttig will visit campus May 8-9 to reflect on his career and discuss his views on recent challenges to democracy and the rule of law.

Luttig will speak to students enrolled in the Future of Democracy course co-instructed by Robert Strong, William Lyne Wilson Professor in Political Economy, and Ken Ruscio, President Emeritus of W&L.

The thematic framework for the spring course is threats to democracy, and the class will explore broad topics such as the state of democracy in the world today, the foundations of American democracy, the consequences of Jan. 6, 2021 and issues of accountability and reform.

“In many ways, Judge Luttig is going to be the centerpiece for what we’re doing,” Strong said. “We’ll hear from an important and thoughtful participant in the events leading up to and surrounding Jan. 6 – and a participant in those events who has a direct and important connection to W&L.”

Luttig is a constitutional scholar who advised Vice President Mike Pence on his constitutional responsibility certifying the electoral college votes on January 6, 2021, and later testified before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol.

Pence’s team reached out to Luttig in the days before Jan. 6 to ask his opinion on the legality of challenging the vote count for the presidential race, and Luttig counseled Pence that he had no legal basis to block Congress from certifying then President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Luttig also made his legal opinion publicly known via Twitter, and later, in his testimony to the House Select Committee, Luttig asserted that stopping Congress from certifying the election would have provoked a “constitutional crisis.”

Luttig will visit the Future of Democracy class on May 8, and the following day, he will be interviewed by classmate and friend, Ken Ruscio as part of a public talk.

“January 6 and American Democracy: A Conversation with The Honorable J. Michael Luttig ’76,” will take place on May 9 at 5 p.m. in the University Chapel.

“In recent years, we’ve tried hard to have guests on campus meet with individual classes or groups of students in addition to doing a public presentation,” Strong said. “That makes it possible for that core group of students who visit with a guest more than once to get the most out of these kinds of speaker events. If it’s just the one public talk and a couple of student questions at the end, it doesn’t have the same impact as when the guest also joins a class.”

The event is open to the public and will be streamed online at www.livestream.com/wlu.