A Coalition of Hope
An Uplifting Coming Together in DC
The Feeder
I was a law student in 1997-1998. My second year.
And since I was less steeped in the law or the process of advancing in the law than many of my classmates, the frenzy that broke out in that second year came out of the blue.
Around mid-year, as I recall, the buzz began building around the halls of the law school. A bunch of new names bandied about—last names I had never heard of only months before suddenly talked about as superheroes.
The next wave of the fervor centered around which classmates were applying to work for which of those names. Who was getting recommendation letters from the most influential professors. Who was being flown to what city—even as far away as LA—for an interview with so and so, became a growing topic of discussion in the dining hall. Some classmates would disappear for days, which meant they must be doing well in this suddenly important process. Where had they flown?!?
Then the offers came, like dominoes falling. So and so had landed so and so. Wow! Or on the flip side, so and so had interviewed with three of the big names, taken a bunch of those flights, disappeared all week, but hadn’t gotten any offers. Now back in the dining hall, worn and beaten down. Ouch.
Worst of all, so and so had been given an offer, had hesitated to accept one offer, hoping for an even more powerful superhero’s offer, so that initial offer was rescinded. Our very own Icarus, wings melting after insulting a God. Double ouch.
What is this (absurd) process that became so important for those months?
Jobs at fancy law firms?
No.
Applying to federal judicial clerkships! One-year clerkships.
For a few months, success in this process was the mark of success.
And the biggest names (those superheroes) that suddenly everyone knew were especially big because they were the judges who were the “feeders”—if you landed a clerkship with one of them (most judges had 4 clerks, so these were very limited spots), you had a great chance at getting at least an interview, if not an offer, from the greatest judicial superheroes of all—Supreme Court Justices.
And so this derby took over the school for a few months to settle one simple question—who would land with which feeder.
Now, amid all those feeders, there was no bigger superhero name at the time than a young judge in the Fourth Circuit (in Virginia), a former Scalia clerk himself, appointed to the bench at 37, who was rumored to be on the short-list for a future Supreme Court seat.
His name was….
…J. Michael Luttig.
Land a clerkship with “Luttig,” as we all described him in the short-hand language of the process, and you would be in with Scalia or one of their other conservative Justices the next year. In fact, every Luttig clerk ever went on to clerk for the Supreme Court, or got an offer to (and declined).
Now that’s a feeder! 100%. If Luttig offers you a spot, you don’t hesitate for a second. There’s no trading up from that.
But there was a catch.
Luttig was a conservative feeder—a feeder for conservative students to go on to clerk for conservative Justices. (Just as there were many judges who were liberal feeders to the more liberal judges—names like Judge Merrick Garland).
So it was friends of mine in the Federalist Society (a club that I initially thought was a nice little group dedicated to the principles of federalism—again, I was an outsider to the legal world when I got to law school) and other conservatives who applied to clerk for Judge Luttig. He was the rock-ribbed Scalia guy. Where the conservatives went to thrive and rise.
No surprise, many of the people that clerked for Judge Luttig over the years would later emerge as major league conservative lawyers and national figures—names like Ted Cruz, John Eastman, former Trump Cabinet member Alex Azar, Christopher Wray and many more legal luminaries. Conservative legal luminaries, usually rising to the top of the legal world. And yes, some falling, like Eastman.
So you get this picture…amid this crazy process, there was no bigger feeder name than Judge J. Michael Luttig. But only true conservatives need apply.
So yes, I’ve known the name Luttig for 25 years.
A Unique Coming Together
All that gives you the context for why a Kettering Foundation conference I attended yesterday in DC had me feeling hopeful amid these tough times.
Because after seeing him on TV (as many of you have) and reading his amicus briefs over the past year, I finally got to meet and see J. Michael Luttig in person. (And no, I did not call him “Luttig.”)
And this rock-ribbed, long-time Republican is every bit as passionate and fired up about saving democracy as I am, and you all are.
To be clear, from his facial expressions to his every word and overall tone, Judge Luttig is truly alarmed at what is happening:
About what happened and was attempted on January 6, as we all saw at the hearings that followed;
At Donald Trump’s behavior since. It’s sobering to realize, but Luttig correctly pointed out yesterday that Trump has largely succeeded over the past three years in normalizing so much of his anti-democratic and disturbing behavior. And much of the frustrating framing of the current presidential race is just one indicator of that Trumpian success;
At the Supreme Court’s dismal failure to play the role it should be playing of upholding the Constitution’s democracy safeguards as they face this ongoing and withering attack. (Luttig decried that the recent decision on disqualification wasn’t an opinion at all, just as he pointed out that the recent oral argument over Presidential immunity hardly spent a moment on the actual question before the court—whether a former president should be found immune for trying to overturn an election and stop the peaceful transfer of power).
About the plans he says are in place should the far right gets its way this year.
And more.
But why did hearing all this alarm still make me hopeful?
Because it was conservative feeder J. Michael Luttig saying it all. With as much passion and dedication as any Democrat or anyone else I see as I travel the country.
And he’s not the only one.
On a prior panel, it was former Republican Governor Christine Todd Whitman talking about the ongoing threat to democracy and how we must address it.
Just as a former GOP Lieutenant Governor of Georgia wrote an editorial endorsing Biden earlier this week.
Just as my former opponent Phil Heimlich (for Hamilton County Commission) has offered to do whatever he can to help Biden beat Trump this November.
Just as another speaker, Republican Sarah Longwell, reminded us yesterday that 22% of Republican primary voters in Indiana on Tuesday still voted for Nikki Haley on Tuesday, against Donald Trump, even when her campaign has been over for months.
And in the same room as these long-time Republicans, concerned about the risk to democracy, were numerous independent-minded democracy champions, a former Democratic Party chair (me), and iconic progressive heroes such as Rev. William Barber—who I was so honored to meet.
Across this wide spectrum, we of course didn’t agree on everything. That became clear even as the conversation took place.
But what was crystal clear was that this broad spectrum of folks see the imminent threat to democracy we face, and are all committed to stopping it.
“We have five months”
I don’t write any of this with naive optimism.
I’m every bit as alarmed as Judge Luttig.
And as my readers know, my alarm spans to levels below where he is generally focused—because the attack on democracy at statehouses has been rendering even deeper damage long-term to our democracy and body politic, and we must overcome that as well (in 2024 and beyond) if we are going to truly save democracy in the long term. So it’s an even bigger challenge than just beating Trump.
And the next six months are going to be as chaotic and stressful and uncertain and trying as any we have all experienced politically. Or as Americans generally.
The stakes as high as any set of elections in our lifetimes.
But despite all that, I left yesterday with hope because protecting democracy, in the end, will come down to building a wide and deep coalition that stands up for democracy and against those who would subvert it—such as Donald Trump at this moment.
As Sharon L. Davies, the President and CEO of the Kettering Foundation (who hosted yesterday’s convening with the Rockefeller Foundation) said in wrapping up yesterday’s conversation: “there is nothing more terrifying to would-be authoritarians than the word ‘We.’”
She’s right—and the broader and bigger the “we,” the better.
And we’ve seen that play out of late.
It was a broad, multi-partisan coalition that saved Ohio’s democracy last August by routing the statehouse’s effort to undermine citizens’ right to bring forward ballot initiatives. Republican names like Kasich, Taft, Montgomery and O’Connor were crucial to building a multi-partisan coalition that routed the statehouse’s outrageous measure, including winning the day in numerous counties that voted for Trump just a few years before.
It’s been that type of broad coalition that’s protected reproductive freedom in state after state whenever and wherever it’s been on the ballot.
And this November, that is the coalition that—if it comes together and sticks together between now and Election Day—can and will succeed in stopping what Trump and his followers are trying to do to this country (and which they are not even trying to hide anymore). And, I hope, secures reforms such as ending partisan gerrymandering in states like Ohio.
So, yes, there’s a ton to do. There’s a lot that will try us in the coming months.
But succeeding starts with building the largest coalition possible.
And from J. Michael Luttig to Rev. Barber to so many others (including those Indiana voters), we have the potential to build one hell of a coalition to do just that this year.
And then, as Judge Luttig said yesterday, once we put out the fire that threatens to burn down our house this year, we can get to work after this year to renovate and rebuild that house so the fire never grows this large and ominous again.
Judge Luttig ended his comments yesterday with four words:
“We have five months.”
He’s right.
Five months—build the biggest coalition possible, fight for democracy everywhere and at all levels, and win.
Let’s go!
Excellent piece, David, once again. Love this: "...there is nothing more terrifying to would-be authoritarians than the word ‘We.’”
Thank you, David, for the beacon of hope. What illuminating company you shared. And having been treated for breast cancer at Memorial Sloan KETTERING Cancer Center, I have a fondness for people who get stuff done! Politics makes strange bedfellows indeed . . . E PLURIBUS UNUM.