Not Qualified

WITH its lurch leftwards in recent decades, the American Bar Association can no longer plausibly claim to be a nonpartisan professional-services organization for lawyers. But even as it has degenerated into another liberal advocacy group, the ABA has trumpeted the imprimatur that its continuing privileged role in the judicial-confirmation process accords it. It’s time to put an end to that.

In 2001, President Bush eliminated the special role that the ABAhad long played in assessing judicial candidates before they were nominated. Little changed, however, because the Senate Judiciary Committee maintained the ABA’s role in its own process. Among other things, a hearing on a nominee will generally not take place until the ABA has delivered its rating. As a result, nominees have had to extend special favors to the ABA that no other outside group receives, such as submitting to confidential interviews and providing personal information. The ABA defends its privileged status by asserting that its Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary, which rates federal judicial nominees, operates independent of the rest of the organization and is steadfastly impartial.

WITH its lurch leftwards in recent decades, the American Bar Association can no longer plausibly claim to be a nonpartisan professional-services organization for lawyers. But even as it has degenerated into another liberal advocacy group, the ABA has trumpeted the imprimatur that its continuing privileged role in the judicial-confirmation process accords it. It’s time to put an end to that.

In 2001, President Bush eliminated the special role that the ABAhad long played in assessing judicial candidates before they were nominated. Little changed, however, because the Senate Judiciary Committee maintained the ABA’s role in its own process. Among other things, a hearing on a nominee will generally not take place until the ABA has delivered its rating. As a result, nominees have had to extend special favors to the ABA that no other outside group receives, such as submitting to confidential interviews and providing personal information. The ABA defends its privileged status by asserting that its Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary, which rates federal judicial nominees, operates independent of the rest of the organization and is steadfastly impartial.

About the Author

Ed Whelan

Ed Whelan holds the Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and is a regular contributor to National Review’s Bench Memos blog.