Ideological disputes over abortion ended the ABA’s privileged role in judicial selection
Evidence
During the Reagan administration, the ABA committee came under fire from political conservatives, who charged that liberals on the ABA committee were allowing their political disagreements with the Reagan administration to color their evaluations of its judicial nominees. The ABA further earned the ire of conservatives when its House of Delegates voted to endorse reproductive choice, thereby giving the appearance that the organization was taking sides in the public debate over abortion. In response, Senate Judiciary Committee chair Orrin Hatch in 1997 decided to exclude the ABA from a privileged position in testifying on judicial nominees. In 2001, the Bush administration notified the ABA that the president would no longer submit a list of potential nominees for the organization’s rating of their professional qualifications, although the president did submit the names of nominees to the ABA at the same time they were submitted to the Senate. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 474
Categorization
- XREF: Direct example of how contested foundational values (here the abortion debate) reshape institutional process — core course theme. — connects to: Ideology has replaced patronage in appeals court selection since recent decades; The ABA’s unofficial pre-screening role in judicial selection waxed and waned with presidential politics. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 681; Appeals court appointment shifted from political patronage to ideological screening — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 471 (+2 more)
- SEED: Angle for an essay: the quiet death of neutral professional gatekeeping in federal judicial selection and what replaced it.
Broader Connections
- The ABA’s unofficial pre-screening role in judicial selection waxed and waned with presidential politics.
#expands(0.92) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 681 - Ideology has replaced patronage in appeals court selection since recent decades
#expands(0.85) - Appeals court appointment shifted from political patronage to ideological screening
#corroborates(0.82) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 471 - Political selection fills the courts with judges holding established partisan views
#qualifies(0.72) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2571