The ABA Is Booted From Judicial Selection (Again)

Despite protestations from the ABA and Democrats, it should have come as no surprise. The ABA long has been dogged by accusations of liberal bias.

GOP Pres. Ronald Reagan and his unsuccessful U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Robert Bork

It’s a typical “lawyer letter.”

Technically, it may be correct, but somehow fails to tell the whole story.

William R. Bay, the president of the American Bar Association, this week asked Attorney General Pamela J. Bondi to reconsider removing the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary from its role as a “key evaluator” of the professional qualifications of judicial nominees.

“The ABA is both surprised and disappointed that the Justice Department has decided for the first time in 72 years to (a) block access by the Standing Committee to judicial nominees and (b) to restrict access of the Standing Committee to information that is relevant in evaluating judicial nominees.,” he writes.

But it couldn’t have been a surprise.

And it’s a stretch to say it is the first time in 72 years that the Standing Committee has been removed from its insider role in the process. It may be the first time the Justice Department has done it, but it’s happened at least twice before.