Bar Association: 'Deeply Disturbing' That Pam Bondi Cut Us Out Of Vetting Trump’s Court Picks

In a new letter, ABA president William Bay says the DOJ's claims that the country's main legal organization is an activist group are "unsupported by the facts.”

WASHINGTON – The American Bar Association on Tuesday responded to Attorney General Pam Bondi’s stunning decision to cut the organization out of the process of vetting President Donald Trump’s nominees to lifetime federal judgeships, calling the move “deeply disturbing” and unprecedented.

In a lengthy letter to Bondi, ABA president William Bay refutes several accusations she made last month about the nonpartisan organization being an “activist group” that invariably favors judicial nominees put forward by Democratic presidents.

“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,” Bay said.

“The changes the Justice Department is apparently imposing will likely result in less transparency in the process of confirming nominees to lifetime appointments on the federal bench and appear to be based on incorrect information set forth in your letter,” he said.

Bay said the ABA has always occupied a unique rule in vetting judicial nominees because nobody else does “the type of in-depth, independent evaluation” the association does. Among other things, the ABA extensively reviews a nominee’s past legal writings, routinely interviews dozens of judges and lawyers who know a given nominee and conducts an extensive interview with each nominee.