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REVIEW & OUTLOOK The ABA Plots a Judicial Coup August 14, 2008; Page A12 Some bad ideas never seem to die, especially in the hands of a crafty attorney. That's the story now playing out at the American Bar Association, which voted at its annual meeting this week to endorse a version of "merit selection" for federal judges. What we have here is the latest lawyer-led attempt to strip judicial selection from future Presidents. According to the proposal, future federal judges would be selected not by an elected President, but with the aid of home-state Senators and a bipartisan commission...

The domestic violence industry is one of the most corrupt and unaccountable enterprises in modern-day America. Every year it sucks over $1 billion from the federal treasury and ships the money to a variety of radical feminist organizations dedicated to revamping the family unit. Thanks to the generosity of the Violence Against Women Act, domestic violence programs encourage women to file false allegations, strip fit fathers of their natural right to parent, and doom kids to live in a single-parent household — with VAWA picking up the legal tab. Of course many men decide to fight the wrongful accusations to...

Something very good has just taken place on a college campus. After a two-year ordeal orchestrated by a group of mutinous faculty members, the Ave Maria School of Law has been given a clean bill of health by the American Bar Association and can continue with its work. I spoke on the campus last autumn and departed burdened by gloom. I feared the mutineers might win. They were the typical professorial grumblers, and such unhappy philistines so often have the upper hand on campuses. Truth be known, I spend very little time on college campuses. The life of the mind...

The ABA Rule of Law Initiative program is searching for a consultant to help conduct a comprehensive review of the Kosovo legal system to determine its capacity for instituting a regulatory bar. The consultant will spend up to 20 days over the next six months conducting research on developing a regulatory attorney bar in Kosovo. The research and assessment should evaluate the attorney regulatory needs of Kosovo and develop a realistic plan to satisfy the needs identified. The consultant’s final report “will thoroughly explore all issues related to the topic; will provide comparative country and regional examples; and will provide...

My study found that Clinton nominees had more than 10 times better odds of getting the ABA's highest rating than similarly credentialed Bush appointees. In short, being nominated by Bill Clinton was a stronger positive variable than any other credential or than all other credentials put together. – Professor James Lindgren Northwestern University School of Law Show me a monopoly, and I'll show you a tyranny. – Ellis Washington ("Unpublished Thoughts," 2007) In a prescient article on the American Bar Association, "Yes, the ABA Rankings are Biased," Northwestern University law professor James Lindgren compiled a remarkable study outlining the clear-and-present...

Text of a proposed American Bar Association resolution urging state and federal officials to close public access to criminal court records. RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges federal, state, territorial and local governments to limit access, to the extent permitted by the First Amendment, except by agencies and employers that are engaged in law enforcement, to: (I) Records of closed criminal cases in which charges were dismissed, nol prossed, or otherwise not pursued; cases that resulted in acquittal; cases in which the judgment of conviction was reversed or vacated; or cases in which a guilty plea was set aside;...

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit claiming Maricopa County officials have violated the rights of a quarantined tuberculosis patient for months by treating him like a criminal. The U.S. District Court complaint filed Wednesday on behalf of Robert Daniels alleges that health officials and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office have violated numerous constitutional rights and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The suit seeks what it calls appropriate accommodations for Daniels, rather than severe and "inhumane" jail conditions. "It's good news for me," Daniels said Wednesday evening. "I finally have a chance to get out of this black...

Search Topics Home FAQ Topics Top 10     Modules · Home· AvantGo· Downloads· FAQ· Forums· Open_Records· Search· Stories Archive· Surveys· Top 10· Topics· Web Links Search Languages Select Interface Language: ABA Hopes to Visit Hutto; Activists Head to Farmers BranchPosted on Wednesday, January 17 @ 19:44:03 MST by editor "We hope to have a delegation of volunteers to visit Hutto in the very near future," says Megan H. Mack, Associate Director of the American Bar Association (ABA) Commission on Immigration (see flyer pasted below). Mack expressed the hope in a Jan. 17 email forwarded by Jay J. Johnson-Castro. Although the results of the ABA visit to the T. Don Hutto...

Who is Anna Diggs Taylor and what does she have against national security? The answer to the first question is: a U.S. district judge in Detroit. The answer to the second is as mysterious as the decision she handed down Thursday. In her 44-page ruling, Judge Taylor ordered the National Security Agency to stop monitoring international calls to and from this country, aka "domestic spying" in New York Times style. The judge found the practice not just illegal but unconstitutional. And also un-American in just about every crass, rhetorical way she could. The crux of her opinion reads like an...

There has been a lot of talk about bipartisanship lately, notably from conservatives who say that Senator Joseph Lieberman’s loss in the Connecticut Democratic primary was a setback for the cause. But any message about the importance of interparty cooperation has not reached the White House’s judicial selection team or Republican leaders in the Senate. The latest judicial nominee they have dug in their heels to defend is a far-right lawyer who received a unanimous “not qualified” rating from the American Bar Association. The Bush administration should withdraw his nomination and four others that are in limbo, and replace them...

President Bush has made a habit out of attaching statements to the laws he signs. His purpose is to explain his interpretation of the law or to express his reservations about it. The American Bar Association has gone on record in opposition to this practice. According to Marvin Gecko, the bar association’s current president, such a statement might “undermine a future court’s creativity in how it interprets the law as applied in particular cases. We need flexible laws that can evolve with the times. The less said about the intent or interpretation at the time laws are passed and signed,...

An American Bar Association task force has concluded that by attaching conditions to legislation, president Bush has sidestepped his constitutional duty to either sign a bill, veto it, or take no action. Bush has issued at least 750 signing statements during his presidency, reserving the right to revise, interpret or disregard laws on national security and constitutional grounds. "That non-veto hamstrings Congress because Congress cannot respond to a signing statement," said ABA president Michael Greco. The practice, he added "is harming the separation of powers." Sen. Specter jumped into the fry by saying he will "submit legislation to the United...

In a letter in today's Wall Street Journal, American Bar Association President Michael Greco objects to our calling his outfit a liberal interest group that should lose its special role in vetting federal judicial nominees. Well, then what are we to make of the ABA's report last week accusing President Bush of abusing his power by explaining how he interprets the bills he signs into law? In its new "study," the ABA claims that Presidential "signing statements" are "contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional system" and urges Congress to pass a law giving itself the power to...

Your July 26 editorial "An ABA Hit Job" is irresponsible and widely misses the mark. It mischaracterizes the work of the ABA Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary, and terribly misleads the public with respect to the evaluation of Mr. Wallace. For more than 50 years, for both Republican and Democratic administrations, the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary has provided nonpartisan, nonideological review of the professional qualifications of judicial nominees. A unique aspect of its evaluation is a peer review of each nominee--confidential interviews with judges, lawyers and others who have first-hand knowledge of the candidate's professional qualifications....

There are some real black marks on President Bush’s record on abiding by his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. He signed a campaign-finance-regulation bill that he knew, at its core, exceeded the constitutional powers of the federal government. His approach to the constitutionality of governmental racial preferences has steadfastly avoided the temptations of principle. President Reagan regularly grounded the case for limited government in the Founders’ design; the notion seems alien to this president, who has therefore not even paid it lip service. But the loudest complaints about Bush’s constitutional record are not ours. At the moment,...

The Boston Globe ran a headline this week, “Panel Chides Bush on Bypassing Laws” (go here) detailing how a group commissioned by the American Bar Association has concluded, in a 32-page report, that President Bush’s use of the Presidential Signing Statement not only overreaches, but attempts to accrue to his Administration extra-constitutional powers for the Executive Branch of the United States Government The ABA panel was headed by Neil R. Sonnet, President Elect of the American Judicature Society (go here), whose former members and board of directors include Janet Reno, Ramsey S. Clark, and General Counsel to the NAACP, Denise...

Political payback against a judicial nominee. In March 2001, barely two months after taking office and two months before announcing his first judicial nominees, President Bush told the American Bar Association to buzz off. Specifically, Mr. Bush ended the tradition of providing the ABA's Committee on the Federal Judiciary with the names of nominees before they were made public. The ABA would still evaluate candidates for the federal bench, but it would do so from a status more consistent with the role it plays--that of a political interest group. Too bad Mr. Bush didn't go all the way and cut...

SAN FRANCISCO - Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides said Friday that if he unseats Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in November he would sign a bill legalizing gay marriage in California. Angelides talked about the issue the day after New York's high court upheld that state's one-man, one-woman marriage laws and as a California appeals court prepared to consider whether a trial judge erred in declaring the state's marriage laws unconstitutional. "I would sign the marriage equality bill because I believe if we can get behind people to build a lasting relationship, that is a good thing," Angelides said at a news...

The ABA has unanimously rated President Bush judicial nominee Michael Wallace “not qualified� to sit on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Liberal groups piled on, calling for the withdrawal of Wallace’s nomination after receiving the group’s lowest rating. According to the AP story, not counting the latest ratings only six of nearly 200 nominees since 2003 have received “not qualified� grade.

WASHINGTON - The American Bar Association rated one of President Bush's judicial nominees "not qualified" Wednesday, prompting a call from a liberal group for the president to withdraw the Mississippi lawyer's nomination. A panel of the nation's largest lawyers group unanimously agreed that Michael Wallace, nominated for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, should receive its lowest rating. Wallace, 54, was a law clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and special counsel to then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi during the impeachment trial of President Clinton in 1999.

Republicans yesterday blamed bias for the American Bar Association's decision to downgrade a Bush judicial nominee's rating from "well-qualified" to "qualified," before a second hearing demanded by Democrats. "It's telling that the only thing that lowered his rating was his service in the Bush White House," a Republican aide on the Senate Judiciary Committee said yesterday. "And the group that lowered it is more partisan than the ABA represents itself." A 14-member ABA committee changed Brett M. Kavanaugh's rating last month in part because six members downgraded their rating from the last time the White House aide was reviewed, panel...

The ABA orders law schools to practice racial preference--even if they have to break the law. According to its mission statement, a primary goal of the American Bar Association is to "promote respect for the law." In the interest of mandating racial preferences in admissions, however, the ABA has just ordered law schools to do the opposite--in fact, to violate the law--and is resorting to blackmail to achieve its end. Meeting in Chicago this past weekend, the ABA's Council of the Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar voted in favor of "equal opportunity and diversity" standards. Under...

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The American Bar Association wants President George W. Bush to either stop domestic eavesdropping without a warrant or get the law changed to make it legal. The more than 500 members of the ABA policy-setting body passed a resolution saying that both national security and constitutional freedoms needed to be protected. Association president Michael Grecco tells reporters, "We hope the President will listen... We do not say surveillance should be stopped, only that it comply with the law." Authorized by Bush in 2001, the program allows the National Security Agency (NSA) to monitor the international phone...

Chicago -- The American Bar Association denounced President Bush's warrantless domestic surveillance program Monday, accusing him of exceeding his powers under the Constitution. The program has prompted a heated debate about presidential powers in the war on terror since it was disclosed in December. The nation's largest organization of lawyers adopted a policy opposing any future government use of electronic surveillance in the United States for foreign intelligence purposes without first obtaining warrants from a special court set up under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The 400,000-member ABA said that if the president believes the FISA is inadequate to...

ATLANTA - A moratorium should be placed on seeking the death penalty in Georgia because the state cannot ensure fairness in trials and appeals, according to a new report by the American Bar Association. The 323-page report found seven flaws in Georgia's administration of the death penalty. For example, Georgia is the only state in the nation that does not guarantee lawyers for death row inmates' habeas corpus appeals, which challenge the constitutionality of convictions and sentences and sometimes result in new trials, the report found. And, of the 26 states that prohibit executing the mentally retarded, the report says...

The American Bar Association—a liberal organization—conducted an extensive investigation of Judge Samuel Alito’s career as a lawyer and judge and unanimously gave him its highest rating of “well qualified” to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. The ABA interviewed 300 people, including 130 federal judges and numerous lawyers who had argued both winning and losing cases in Alito’s court. It also examined the purported controversies about Alito’s failure to recuse himself from a case involving the Vanguard company, which managed mutual funds he owned shares in (see Sen. Orrin Hatch’s piece on the cover), and his membership in the defunct...

Today on NBC News' "Meet the Press," host Tim Russert boxed liberal Sen. Chuck Schumer (D.-N.Y.) into a corner over Schumer's opposition to Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. Russert reminded Schumer of a letter he wrote to President Bush in 2001 that said: "The ABA evaluation has been the gold standard by which judicial candidates are judged..." He then said to Schumer: "And now we have this from the ABA: 'Samuel A. Alito Jr. (nominated 11/10/05), to be an associate justice to the U.S. Supreme Court. Rating: `Well qualified' by unanimous vote of the standing committee' of the ABA. It's...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito has received a "well qualified" rating from the American Bar Association. The ABA Wednesday said its 15-member Standing committee voted unanimously, with one recusal, to give Alito the group's highest rating. The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is set to convene hearings on Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court Tuesday. President George Bush selected Alito to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who said in July she wished to retire. Abortion rights activists, environmental rights supporters and minority groups have expressed concern about Alito's nomination based on his previous writing. Democratic...

Another skeleton Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers was deeply involved in an American Bar Association scheme that forces lawyers to pool their clients' funds into checking accounts and pass on the interest to "public interest" law firms, Evan Gahr reports at www.chimpstein.com. The program, known as Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts, or IOLTA, was intended to provide legal services to the poor but often ends up promoting left-wing causes, Mr. Gahr said. IOLTA has helped fund "a panoply of left-wing advocates, including a California group that sued to overturn the state's parental consent law for abortion, a gay organization that...

Progress for America has launched a pro-Miers website. Curiously, one of the “Highlights” of her career listed is that Miers opposed ending the ABA’s privileged role in the evaluation of judicial nominees. So, according to PFA, one of the highlights of Miers career is that she opposed a policy supported by conservatives that President Bush adopted.

During her term as president of the State Bar of Texas, Harriet Miers wrote 11 president's opinions for the monthly Texas Bar Journal. Miers' opinions are provided here for informational purposes. All files are in pdf format. These are large files, please be patient as you download them. June 1992 July 1992 September 1992 October 1992 November 1992 December 1992 January 1993 February 1993 March 1993 April 1993 May 1993

...Allow us to recall the case of Anthony Kennedy.... Mr. Helms said to Judge Kennedy, "I think you know where I stand on abortion." Mr. Kennedy "smiled and answered, 'Indeed I do and I admire it. I am a practicing Catholic.'"... "...Mr. Helms interpreted the response to mean that Judge Kennedy is opposed to abortion and would look favorably on any case in which the Court's earlier decision striking down the abortion laws of all 50 states might be overturned." Reagan nominated Mr. Kennedy, who dodged the abortion issue at his confirmation hearings. Mr. Helms voted for him. And we...

More than half of Americans are angry and disappointed with the nation's judiciary, a new survey done for the ABA Journal e-Report shows. A majority of the survey respondents agreed with statements that "judicial activism" has reached the crisis stage. Nearly half agreed with a congressman who said judges are "arrogant, out-of-control and unaccountable." The survey results surprised legal experts. "These are surprisingly results," says Buffy Tushbottom, a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. "Despite our best efforts in the classroom and media to sell the idea of judicial supremacy, it appears that most Americans are...

NEW YORK Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers' limited history on media issues offers little indication of how she would approach such cases on the court, according to a review by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Still, the group says her past work with the Dallas Morning News and as an editor of the American Bar Association's monthly magazine offers some hope that she would support press freedoms. No substantive legal writings exist that would shed light on her commitment to the First Amendment or freedom of information,the Reporters Committee review states, but "interviews with those who know...

HALF OF U.S. SEES ‘JUDICIAL ACTIVISM CRISIS’ ABA Journal Survey Results Surprise Some Legal Experts BY MARTHA NEIL More than half of Americans are angry and disappointed with the nation’s judiciary, a new survey done for the ABA Journal eReport shows. A majority of the survey respondents agreed with statements that "judicial activism" has reached the crisis stage, and that judges who ignore voters’ values should be impeached. Nearly half agreed with a congressman who said judges are "arrogant, out-of-control and unaccountable." The survey results surprised some legal experts with the extent of dissatisfaction shown toward the judiciary. "These are...

It's too bad there's now a firewall in place on the computer system used by the Senate Judiciary Committee's Democratic staff. We'd love to take a peek at the internal memos reacting to Tuesday's Washington Post story headlined "Roberts Unlikely to Face Big Fight; Many Democrats See Battle as Futile." If the staff memos that were leaked on President Bush's appeals-court nominees in 2003 are any guide, Democrats once again are taking dictation from liberal interest groups-- this time on how to oppose Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. We expect Tuesday's e-chatter went along the lines of: "Ralph Neas called..."...

Supreme Court nominee John Roberts on Wednesday received a "well qualified" rating from the American Bar Association, clearing another hurdle in his path to the nation's highest court. The rating was revealed as the Senate Judiciary Committee announced its plans for Roberts' Sept. 6 confirmation hearings, which include having the nominee questioned by the 18 senators on the panel for almost an hour each. This is the fourth time the ABA has rated Roberts. He was designated as well qualified in 2001 when nominated to be an appeals court judge in the District of Columbia and again in 2003 when...

On 10 August, 2005, the Chicago Sun-Times website published an article which (accidentally) revealed the nature of the new President of the American Bar Association, Michael Greco. The revelation came not from what the article said, but what it did not say. Both the APA President and the reporter should have noticed the holes in the article, entitled “Courts threatened by extremists: ABA leader.” President Greco’s politics are suggested here: “He also asked the Rev. Robert Drinan, a former Democratic U.S. representative from Massachusetts and his mentor at Boston College Law School, to stand.” Father Drinan was one of the...

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer said Tuesday that rulings on difficult subjects like gay rights and the death penalty have left courts vulnerable to political attacks that are threatening judicial independence. Breyer urged lawyers to help educate people about court responsibility to be an independent decision-maker. "If you say seven or eight or nine members of the Supreme Court feel there's a problem ... you're right," he told the American Bar Association. "It's this edge on a lot of issues." Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who was speaking with Breyer, said: "The politics of judges is getting to be red hot."...

...If the ABA rates Mr. Roberts fairly, he will receive a unanimous "well qualified" rating. There is simply no question that he satisfies the ABA's criteria, which boil down to integrity, professional competence and judicial temperament. Before becoming a judge, he was one of the most accomplished and respected appellate lawyers in America... [of} "unquestioned integrity."... If history is any indication, however, the ABA will struggle with the Roberts rating for a simple reason: He is conservative. For that sin, the nominee may earn a split vote or worse. That disservice was infamously done to Robert Bork in 1987, when...

CHICAGO - Supreme Court nominee John Roberts skipped the American Bar Association's yearly meeting, but big-name conservatives like Kenneth Starr and Theodore Olson were there to promote his credentials. Roberts' nomination to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is a watershed for lawyers. And with Senate confirmation hearings just a month away, he was the inescapable subject at the meeting of the country's largest lawyers group. Top conservatives, from Starr and Olson to Reagan administration Attorney General Edwin Meese and Federalist Society leader Leonard Leo, were attending the meeting and serving as unofficial ambassadors on Roberts' behalf. "For those people...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The American Bar Association is reviewing whether the favorable recommendation it gave John Roberts for his federal appellate court judgeship is good for the Supreme Court nomination as well. The nation's largest lawyers group is interviewing judges, lawyers who argued before Roberts, community leaders, law professors — and Roberts himself. "We're reaching out to over 1,000 individuals across the country," said Thomas Hayward Jr., a Chicago attorney overseeing the work. Roberts, 50, would replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor if he is confirmed by the Senate. President Bush named the then-Washington lawyer to the appeals court in...

Hi All, I just wanted to give an update and to ask for continueing prayers for my wife and the girls. The girls are fine, and the are geting big,both are over 4 pounds and tomorrow they start their 33rd week. But my wife is hurting, she is very uncomfortable and is waking up every hour or so in the night. She is a small woman and the twins are getting big and moving around, add to that she is having one or two contractions a day. The prayers and support we have recieved from you all has meant a...

U.S. District Court judges by a sizable majority oppose mandatory sanctions for lawyers who file groundless suits, a recent survey shows. The Federal Judicial Center surveyed 400 judges via e-mail in December 2004 and January 2005. The survey, which garnered 278 responses, found that 87 percent preferred the current Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. That rule gives judges the discretion to impose sanctions on attorneys who file pleadings that are frivolous, presented for an improper purpose or lack evidentiary support. The survey, consisting of 13 questions dealing with Rule 11, comes in the wake of the...

What do most members of the Democratic National Committee, the American Bar Association and the American Civil Liberties Union have in common? They hate the Constitution of the United States of America. Of course, people in each group have somewhat different reasons for hating that document. Democrat party leaders hate it because it forces people with minority opinions like themselves to abide by rules which reflect the will of the majority. ABA law practitioners hate it because it does not permit them to make legal decisions based upon their political ideologies. Members of the ACLU hate it because they are...

Received this in a marketing newsletter Live From Chicago: ABA Raises the Bar on Telemarketing The American Bar Association is considering testing direct mail and telephone scripts that strongly encourage credit card payment to boost membership renewal rates. The ABA is the largest volunteer professional association in the country, with 400,000 members, including 300,000 attorneys. Lawyers are offered a free one-year membership when the pass the bar exam; after the first year when payment is requested, retention is about 40%. Membership levels are crucial, said Roger Marcus, the ABA's director of database marketing at the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing's...

As members of the legal profession, I know you share my concern over the public's misunderstanding of the judiciary's role and the politically motivated criticism of the judiciary stemming from the Terri Schiavo case, and are equally alarmed about the murders of Judge Lefkow's family members in Chicago and the attacks at the Fulton County Courthouse in Georgia. The circumstances of these tragic events require careful analysis, thoughtful leadership, and measured response. The American Bar Association has long held the preservation of judicial independence as one of the most important Association goals. These recent events have elevated the urgency of...

Former Massachusetts congressman Robert Drinan, a Jesuit priest who supported legalizing abortion when he served in Congress, still uses the authority of his collar to cheerlead for evil causes. On Easter Sunday, he turned up at various television studios to praise the starvation to death of Terri Schiavo. Drinan was apparently Tim Russert's idea of a sturdy Catholic authority on this matter. Even as Drinan praised the killing of a disabled woman he mused nostalgically about passage of the "Americans with Disabilities Act," a glorious piece of legislation, he said. A host not willing to play the stooge to a...

Breaking...

A NIGHTMARISH vision set out in 1985 by the American folk singer Tom Paxton has come true: the United States now has more than one million licensed lawyers. The disclosure came after California enrolled its 200,000th lawyer this week, swelling the national ranks of the legal profession to 1,084,504, according to the American Bar Association. That is a 65 per cent increase since 1985. Growth in the number of lawyers is unlikely to stop, with the celebrity trials of Michael Jackson and Robert Blake, along with lawyer-based television chat shows such as Larry King Live, creating huge interest in America’s...