US Attorney General Pam Bondi has informed the American Bar Association that it will no longer receive special access to information or participate in the judicial nomination process, citing longstanding concerns over political bias in the organization.
In a letter addressed to ABA President Mary Smith Bay, Bondi criticized the organization for what she described as a “demonstrable” pattern of favoring nominees from Democrat administrations.
The letter ends a decades-long tradition of privileged involvement in vetting federal judicial nominees.
“For several decades, the American Bar Association has received special treatment and enjoyed special access to judicial nominees,” Bondi wrote. “Unfortunately, the ABA no longer functions as a fair arbiter of nominees’ qualifications.”
Bondi noted that in previous administrations, the ABA had been granted early notice of potential nominees and had influence over whether a nomination would move forward based on its internal ratings. That era, her letter made clear, is now over.
“The Office of Legal Policy will no longer direct nominees to provide waivers allowing the ABA access to non-public information, including bar records,” Bondi wrote. “Nominees will also not respond to questionnaires prepared by the ABA and will not sit for interviews with the ABA.”
The decision aligns with longstanding conservative criticisms that the ABA’s judicial evaluation process lacks neutrality and disproportionately favors liberal legal perspectives. Conservative lawmakers have frequently cited cases where conservative nominees were rated poorly, while liberal counterparts with similar or less experience received higher marks.
While the ABA is still free to offer its opinions on judicial candidates, Bondi wrote that it will now be treated “like other activist organizations.”
The Alaska Bar Association plays a similar gatekeeping role in state judicial nominations. Judicial selections in Alaska are made through the Alaska Judicial Council, a constitutionally established body that evaluates applicants for judgeships and sends nominees to the governor. The Alaska Bar Association gets to appoint three of the seven members of the judicial council, a role established by the Alaska Constitution. Along with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court as the head of the judicial council, this has ensured that liberal judges rule the courts of Alaska.
We need to do this in Alaska! We have the most corrupt Leftisted infected Judicial System in a Red State. The force Conservative Governors to select Judges from their approved list of Communist Democrats. This practice has to end!
Unfortunately, it is in our state constitution so neither the governor nor legislature can directly change our process to exclude the ABA. Boy do we ever need a state constitutional convention!
This should have been done 30 years ago. The damage is done and we have no one brave enough to undo the damage. Now do Alaska Bar Association.
“The damage is done and we have no one brave enough to undo the damage.”
The entire premise of the article and what Pam Bondi did disagrees with your assertion.
Leftist activist acolytes of maoist molochites have no place in our country much less our courts
Now, to remove the egregiously biased, unfair, hyper-partisan, and patently unethical involvement of the Alaska Bar Association in the Alaskan judicial nomination process.
What say you, establishment defender Joe Geldof?
ABA an “activist organization”? Who wudda known.
Time for change in Alaska too. Liberal politicized judges should be removed.
Wow! That is a big time move to make recommendations to federal courts based on quality of the applicant. Not based on political affiliations.
However there is not much that can be done with the final decision makers who choose the candidate for a federal judicial position. The U. S. senate will
likely always decide based on political affiliation. And today that sounds about right. Pretty sure Trump will submit conservative nominees. But tomorrow things may change. Hope not though.
From your article, it would appear that this would require a constitutional amendment to cure this in Alaska. I should live so long….
We need to start a public ballot initiative to make this long-overdue change to the Alaska state constitution. The fact that such a system was ever even put into the Alaska constitution is just another sign how communistic the Alaska constitution’s writers really were. And yes, I use the word “communistic” here purposefully and with exact intent.
As I understand it, the Governor could refuse nominees until he is sent a candidate he finds acceptable. Of course, to do that, the Governor would have to have a spine…..