Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Justice Department will end the American Bar Association’s role in vetting federal judges, escalating Republican efforts to sideline the legal group over claims of political bias.
In a letter sent Thursday to ABA President William R. Bay, Bondi said the DOJ under President Donald Trump would no longer grant the group first access to judicial nominees or require candidates to cooperate with the ABA’s longstanding vetting process. The move eliminates a decades-old arrangement that gave the ABA early access to potential nominees for evaluation.
The American Bar Association has lost its way, and we do not believe it serves as a fair arbiter of judicial nominees.@TheJusticeDept will no longer give the ABA the access they’ve taken for granted. pic.twitter.com/ViqX9IRa7w
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) May 29, 2025
“For several decades, the American Bar Association has received special treatment and enjoyed special access to judicial nominees,” Bondi wrote. “That ends now.”
Specifically, the DOJ’s Office of Legal Policy will no longer serve as a conduit for ABA access, ending internal policies that gave the association a unique foothold in the selection process. Nominees will also no longer be directed to provide waivers for the ABA to access confidential information, such as bar records, and will not respond to questionnaires or sit for interviews with the group’s judicial review committee, Bondi said.
The decision marks a further rollback of the ABA’s influence in federal judicial nominations, which had already diminished under previous Republican presidents. President George W. Bush first ended the ABA’s early role in the nomination process, a practice that President Joe Biden also continued during his single term in office.
But Bondi’s action goes further, ending cooperation with the group altogether. “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,” she said.
Robert Luther III, a former Trump White House lawyer who handled judicial nominations during the president’s first term, said the group has had many chances to correct course.
“They’ve got a 50-year track record that needs a lot of improvement,” Luther told the Washington Examiner. “So I don’t know where the future will go, but they’ve had a lot of opportunities to make up for mistakes, and haven’t done a very good job.”
The ABA has struck an aggressive posture against the Trump administration since Trump’s return to the Oval Office this year. It has been outspoken over former Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk‘s calls to impeach lower court judges blocking the president’s agenda. Earlier, this month, the ABA scored a temporary victory in its legal fight to block the DOJ from canceling grants to the private legal group.
Asked whether the ABA could sue over the DOJ’s latest decision, Luther was dismissive: “There’s no constitutional right for a private organization to have access to government nominees. That’d be a ridiculous lawsuit.”
The ABA’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, a 15-member body made up of legal professionals, has reviewed judicial nominees since the Eisenhower administration. It rates potential judges as “not qualified,” “qualified,” or “well qualified.” But conservatives have long accused the committee of ideological bias, especially after several Trump nominees received “not qualified” ratings.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and other Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have previously blasted the ABA as a “radical left-wing advocacy group,” citing its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and its involvement in litigation opposing Trump-era policies.
Bondi’s announcement comes one day after Trump nominated a top DOJ official who previously worked as one of Trump’s criminal defense attorneys, Emil Bove, to a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.
“Emil has excellent credentials including a degree from a top law school, clerkships with two federal judges appointed by Republican presidents, experience as a federal prosecutor in a district with some of the most complex cases in the country, and private practice representing the President in some of the most contentious, high-stakes, public-facing litigation in recent memory,” Luther said of Bove’s legal pedigree.
Trump on Wednesday included that he was nominating five Floridians to serve as federal district court judges in their state: Ed Artau, Kyle Dudek, John Guard, Anne-Leigh Gaylord Moe, and Jordan Pratt.
REPUBLICANS WAGE CAMPAIGN AGAINST AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION
The Trump administration has also imposed restrictions on DOJ employees’ participation in ABA events and signaled concerns over the group’s law school accreditation powers, especially regarding diversity mandates in legal education.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has teed up a confirmation hearing on June 4 for five of Trump’s judicial nominees tapped earlier this month for lifetime appointments, including Whitney Hermandorfer of Tennessee to the 6th Circuit and Missouri district nominees Joshua Divine, Zachary Bluestone, Maria Lanahan, and Cristian Stevens. The panel will also consider Edward A. O’Connell of the District of Columbia for a seat on the D.C. Superior Court.