U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, a Trump appointee and mainstay of his administration, wrote a letter last Thursday to the American Bar Association announcing that she will be significantly reducing the role they play in evaluating Trump’s judicial picks, citing a “bias” in its rating processes.
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Calling the ban the work of “monsters,” they pointed out how these bans are directly endangering children and free speech.
The ABA “will no longer direct nominees to provide waivers allowing the ABA access to nonpublic information, including bar records,” she wrote. “Nominees will also not respond to questionnaires prepared by the ABA and will not sit for interviews with the ABA.”
“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,” Bondi alleged without evidence. “The ABA’s steadfast refusal to fix the bias in its ratings process, despite criticism from Congress, the Administration, and the academy, is disquieting.”
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Chad Mizelle, Justice Department Chief of Staff, said on X that “The ABA has become little more than a left-wing advocacy group. Under @AGPamBondi’s leadership, we will treat them like one.”
No evidence was given for any of these claims, besides the fact that some have criticized jurists like Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for alleged corruption and ideological bias in their roles. Mizelle’s wife was also rejected for nomination by the ABA during Trump’s first term.
Andrew Ortiz, senior policy attorney at the Transgender Law Center, said in a statement to The Advocate, “This is a continuation of the administration’s attack on the rule of law and its efforts to erode our constitutional system of checks and balances. In his first term, Trump nominated a slate of unqualified, anti-equality, far-right ideologues and loyalists to the federal judiciary. It is clear he intends to do more of the same and everyone should be concerned about the quality of our nation’s judges, not just those in the legal profession.”
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