During the first Trump administration, the White House just sat back and took it when the American Bar Association would point out that several of its judicial nominees were woefully unqualified. Aside from the occasional ghost hunter, the GOP-controlled Senate would, by and large, end up confirming them anyway and they would quickly confirm the ABA was right about them all along.
But no more!
The Department of Justice just officially cut the American Bar Association out of the judicial nomination vetting process, unmooring the process from any neutral evaluation process and turning it all over to Trump’s gut feeling and Senator Kennedy’s stupid-ass remedial bar prep questioning. Frankly, it’s not even clear we can trust the Federalist Society to have vetted these people at this point.
It’s probably not an accident that this comes immediately after Trump nominated Emil Bove to the Third Circuit. The ABA deep dive into bargain bin Roy Cohn promised to be amusing.
Honestly, I thought the administration would pull this stunt sooner. The administration is already slap-fighting with the ABA as the designated law school accreditator and the right-wing echo chamber started complaining about the ABA’s judicial vetting function as far back as 2017. Making a big production out of cutting off the ABA was as inevitable as Thanos. And so, in a letter so melodramatic it may as well have been delivered via fainting couch, Attorney General Pam Bondi informed the ABA today that it would henceforth be treated like any other “activist organization.”
Unfortunately, the ABA no longer functions as a fair arbiter of nominees’ qualifications, and its ratings invariably and demonstrably favor nominees put forth by Democratic administrations.
You know, Occam’s Razor might have something to say about why Democratic nominees keep scoring better. Something about how the Democrats aren’t nominating frickin’ associates to the federal bench, perhaps? Because it’s worth noting that a LOT of Trump nominees actually have received qualified and well qualified rankings. The organization isn’t systematically dinging Republican nominees… it’s just that the Republicans are the only ones putting up a handful of unqualified nominees on the strength of their banging college op-eds about exiling gay people to the phantom zone.
If you’re wondering how seriously the administration takes this…
Are they on the DOJ’s Signal chat or something? Nothing says sober government policy like giving an exclusive preview to your propaganda arm. Come on, Fox… of course you got a sneak peek inside the administration, but don’t flag it. Try to project some faux dignity.
The ABA’s steadfast refusal to fix the bias in its ratings process, despite criticism from Congress, the Administration, and the academy, is disquieting.
Disquieting must have been on her word of the day calendar this morning. It’s worth noting that the one-page letter doesn’t bother to provide any examples or data. This administration runs on vibes and grudges and it’s not going to stop now.
For decades, the ABA’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary provided the boring-but-important homework that kept the judicial confirmation process tethered to reality. But now that the Federalist Society has done picked all the low-hanging fruit, the process was likely to involve a lot more embarrassing assessments that the administration would rather do without.
Specifically, the Office of Legal Policy will no longer direct nominees to provide waivers allowing the ABA access to non-public information, including bar records. Nominees will also not respond to questionnaires prepared by the ABA and will not sit for interviews with the ABA.
The ABA was a speed bump on the path to raw judicial power, so the DOJ bulldozed it. Expertise itself is now suspicious.
Fittingly, the administration will pick the judiciary like it’s advancing contestants on The Apprentice. The next crop of nominees are going to be wild.
(Letter on the next page…)
Earlier: Shocking No One, ABA Thinks Biglaw ASSOCIATE Not Ready For Federal Bench
NEWSFLASH: Unqualified Federal Judges Are… Unqualified
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
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