The Trump administration has expressed concerns about the American Bar Association’s (ABA) impartiality in evaluating judicial nominees. The Department of Justice (DOJ) claimed that the ABA has favored nominees from Democratic administrations in its rating process. As a result, Attorney General Pam Bondi has noted that nominees will no longer provide the ABA with access to non-public information.
The Justice Department on Thursday formally notified the American Bar Association that it will no longer comply with its ratings process for judicial nominees, the result of what it argues is a biased system and one that “invariably and demonstrably” favors nominees put forth by Democratic administrations.
The letter, sent by U.S. Attorney General Pam [Bimbo #3] Bondi to ABA President William R. Bay, was previewed exclusively to Fox News. It marks the latest escalation in a protracted legal fight that Republicans have waged against the nation’s largest association of legal workers.
“For several decades, the American Bar Association has received special treatment and enjoyed special access to judicial nominees,” Bondi said in the letter. “In some administrations, the ABA received notice of nominees before a nomination was announced to the public. Some administrations would even decide whether to nominate an individual based on a rating assigned by the ABA.”
The Justice Department said in the letter that it will no longer grant the ABA the “special treatment” and first access it has received, revoking decades of precedent where the ABA interviewed and vetted potential members of the incoming DOJ team.
A clear violation of the first amendment rights of government attorneys to free speech and peaceably to assemble:
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Wednesday prohibited Justice Department attorneys from traveling to or speaking at American Bar Association events, in a memo seen by Reuters that accused the ABA of engaging in “activist causes” contrary to the government’s interest.
