Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) criticized the American Bar Association during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, framing the legal group as a partisan advocacy organization that dwarfs the ideological influence of the conservative-leaning Federalist Society.
Responding to Democrats’ comments earlier in the hearing, Lee defended his decades-long affiliation with the Federalist Society, saying it is “not an advocacy group” but rather a forum for debate.
“It’s regarded by many as a conservative group, and that’s fair, because a lot of its members happen to be conservative,” Lee said. “But it’s unlike most American law school classrooms — open to people of all viewpoints.”
In contrast, Lee said, the ABA “is about as ideologically even-handed as the Democratic National Committee.” He accused the association of wielding outsize influence in judicial nominations until the Trump administration recently moved to revoke its privileged access.
Last week, the Justice Department, under the direction of Attorney General Pam Bondi, ended the ABA’s role in vetting judicial nominees. Bondi announced the move last week, citing the group’s “demonstrable” bias in favor of Democratic nominees. The DOJ will no longer facilitate ABA access to candidates or require them to respond to its evaluations.
“The fact that the ABA had an official role is itself alarming,” Lee said. “If you want to attack the Federalist Society, look no further than the fact that the ABA is itself an advocacy organization. The Federalist Society is not.”
Lee’s remarks came amid testimony from 6th Circuit nominee Whitney Hermandorfer, one of President Donald Trump’s first judicial picks since returning to the White House. When asked by Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) about her ties to the Federalist Society, Hermandorfer said she had been a member since she was in graduate school.
Throughout the hearing, some Democratic members grew even more distracted by Trump’s growing rift with the Federalist Society, at times focusing less on the nominees before them and more on Trump’s sideshow comments about the conservative legal group.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the committee’s top Democrat, pounced on Trump’s recent attacks against Leonard Leo, co-chairman of the Federalist Society, calling Trump “inconsistent.” Leo, not the Federalist Society, was foundational to influencing Trump’s federal judicial selections in his first term, including three Supreme Court nominees.
“The Federalist Society is now a suspect sleazebag group who used to be the required approval before anyone’s taken seriously,” Durbin said, referencing Trump’s words when referring to the group’s co-chairman.
Sources familiar with the matter confirmed to the Washington Examiner that Trump is frustrated with some of Leo’s recommendations, such as Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and Trump lashed out publicly after one of his first-term nominees to the Court of International Trade sided against him in a tariffs lawsuit.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) took it a step further than Durbin, labeling the current conservative legal divide a “food fight” between factions of the Right.
“We have this very potent internal food fight between the Leo polluter faction and the MAGA election denial faction,” he said. “It’s highly revelatory about what has been done to the judicial branch.”
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Despite Trump’s jabs, all five of his nominees who lined up for testimony Wednesday, including four from the Missouri attorney general’s office, have some ties to the Federalist Society. That continuity has raised doubts about whether Trump’s second-term picks will differ meaningfully from his first, even as his rhetoric surrounding his judicial strategy grows more confrontational.
The hearing concluded just after 1 p.m. With Republicans in the Senate majority, this slate of nominees could proceed to a full Senate vote as early as next month.