Judge J. Michael Luttig Receives Honorary Membership from the NYC Bar

0:00 – Welcome and Bestowal of Honorary Membership by NYC Bar President Muhammad U. Faridi
7:58 – Judge Luttig’s acceptance remarks
23:42 – Ali Velshi interviews Judge Luttig
47:20 – Panel on “The Rule of Law and the American Judiciary in 2026”

The New York City Bar Association bestows Honorary Membership on the Hon. J. Michael Luttig. A former judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel under President George H.W. Bush, Judge Luttig has long exemplified nonpartisan commitment to America’s founding principles and has inspired lawyers and the public alike to defend democratic institutions and the rule of law.

MS Now Anchor Ali Velshi interviews Judge Luttig, followed by a panel on “The Rule of Law and the American Judiciary in 2026,” with CNN Legal Analyst Jennifer Rodgers, former FBI Special Agent Asha Rangappa, former U.S. District Judge John Gleeson, and constitutional law scholar Dr. William M. Treanor.

In his acceptance remarks, Judge Luttig says, “We must stand, raise our voices and speak out against what we are witnessing in America today. We must break the silence of the night, or as Dr. Martin Luther King warned: ‘In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.’ If we but find the courage to speak truth to power now, today, as did the founders and our ancestors when their time of testing came, the United States of America will endure forever as the beacon of freedom and liberty to the world.”