Bondi Eliminates ABA's Role in Vetting Trump Judicial Picks [View all]
Source: Bloomberg Law
The Justice Department won’t allow the American Bar Association to vet President Donald Trump’s picks for judicial appointments.
The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy, which prepares judicial nominees, will no longer “direct nominees to provide waivers allowing the ABA access to non-public information, including bar records,” according to the Thursday letter. Nominees also won’t respond to ABA questionnaires or sit for interviews with the ABA’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary.
“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,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a Thursday letter to ABA President William Bay.
The changes represent a further diminishment of the ABA’s customary role in vetting judicial nominations, which had already shrank during several prior administrations. Trump, like George W. Bush before him, had cut off the ABA’s ability to vet candidates before they were nominated, a practice Joe Biden continued.
The ABA’s standing committee, which is independent from the larger organization, is a 15-member panel that’s helped vet judicial nominees since the Eisenhower era. Its members, including the chairman, are appointed by the association’s president to three-year terms. The ranks have included trial attorneys, law professors, and Big Law partners.
Lawyers under consideration are rated as “not qualified,” “qualified,” or “well qualified.”
Read more: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/bondi-eliminates-abas-role-in-vetting-trump-judicial-nominees
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