Bar Associations Should Not Be Picking Judges
Attorney General Pam Bondi made a major change to the way that we choose our judges.
The ABA will no longer be granted special access to judicial nominees.
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
This move was LONG OVERDUE.
Although the ABA presents itself as a nonpartisan group representing the entire legal profession, they have functioned as a Liberal activist group.
This is not only evident in the nominees that they support, but in their advocacy for abortion, LGBT issues, and gun rights.
The ABA is captured by Left-wing ideologues.
Tomorrow, the ABA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Center will be hosting its annual equity summit.
To be sure, the ABA is allowed to be a Liberal advocacy group.
The Justice Department, however, should not be granting Liberal advocacy groups special access to the judicial nomination process.
The Senate Judiciary Committee should follow the DOJ’s lead and kick the ABA out of its process.
The USAID funded American Bar Association is ideologically captured by the Left. We just cut its privileged spot in the judicial selection process.
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) June 4, 2025
I’m re-upping my call to the @SenJudiciaryGOP to disregard the failed ABA & was glad to see @AGPamBondi join our cause last week. pic.twitter.com/W9UJazeUoh
We face the same challenge in Missouri.
The so-called “Nonpartisan Court Plan” mandates that the Missouri Bar gets a say in the nomination of judges.
The Plan, sometimes embarrassingly referred to as the “Missouri Plan,” creates a five-member panel composed of two representatives from the Bar, the Chief Judge who reached the bench through this process, and two citizens selected by the Governor.
The panel then selects three nominees that the Governor chooses from.
What’s to stop them from choosing three Liberals?
Nothing.
What’s to stop them from choosing two Left-wing extremists and one Liberal who looks palatable by comparison?
Nothing.
The Court Plan is how we end up with judges who don’t represent the will of the people.
The Court Plan is how we end up with judges who rewrite ballot language to benefit Liberal causes in referendums.
The Court Plan is how we end up with citizens who don’t know their judges and don’t trust their opinions.
The Founding Fathers wrote a lot about checks and balances.
They understood the threat of an unchecked judiciary.
They would be horrified by a system that takes the power of judicial nominations away from the people and their representatives.
They would be more horrified by our system that takes the judicial nominating power away from the people and gives it to a group of legal elites.
Missouri needs Court Reform.
Andy Bakker
Executive Director
Liberty Alliance USA