It’s probably not an accident that this comes immediately after Trump nominated Emil Bove to the Third Circuit. The ABA deep dive into bargain bin Roy Cohn promised to be amusing.
The ABA has historically been a rubber stamp for judicial appointments. They never had all that much power to begin with. Did the ABA stop Clarence Thomas or Samuel Alito from taking the bench? What about Stuart Kyle Duncan or James Ho? Who have we actually been spared? Hell, how many members of the ABA are in the Federalist Society?
This isn’t a change in policy, its a continuation minus the fig leaf of academic approval.
Just because it’s been flouted in the past doesn’t make getting rid of it a good thing. The ABA is an excellent input into whether a judge or lawyer should be approved. Removing it is an explicit way to limit criticism that should be part of the record.
Just because it’s been flouted in the past doesn’t make getting rid of it a good thing.
At some point, you need to recognize the hollowness of the institution. Otherwise, you’re not doing anything to preserve legal standards, you’re just going through the formal motions.
The ABA wasn’t a good thing. It was a rubber stamp. As soon as it tried to be a good thing it was tossed aside. This is because the institution was hollow. It didn’t do the job people professed it was doing. It crumbled immediately on the slightest pressure.
The solution is to build a more durable and robust institution, not to prop the paper tiger back up again. America is desperately in need of drastic judicial reforms. Maybe we can salvage something out of the folks at the ABA who had the spine necessary to test the limits of their power. But a toothless outside privately managed club of attorneys that can be brushed aside at the slightest inconvenience obviously isn’t a benefit to judicial oversight.
<blink>fascism in progress</blink>
The ABA has historically been a rubber stamp for judicial appointments. They never had all that much power to begin with. Did the ABA stop Clarence Thomas or Samuel Alito from taking the bench? What about Stuart Kyle Duncan or James Ho? Who have we actually been spared? Hell, how many members of the ABA are in the Federalist Society?
This isn’t a change in policy, its a continuation minus the fig leaf of academic approval.
Just because it’s been flouted in the past doesn’t make getting rid of it a good thing. The ABA is an excellent input into whether a judge or lawyer should be approved. Removing it is an explicit way to limit criticism that should be part of the record.
At some point, you need to recognize the hollowness of the institution. Otherwise, you’re not doing anything to preserve legal standards, you’re just going through the formal motions.
The ABA wasn’t a good thing. It was a rubber stamp. As soon as it tried to be a good thing it was tossed aside. This is because the institution was hollow. It didn’t do the job people professed it was doing. It crumbled immediately on the slightest pressure.
The solution is to build a more durable and robust institution, not to prop the paper tiger back up again. America is desperately in need of drastic judicial reforms. Maybe we can salvage something out of the folks at the ABA who had the spine necessary to test the limits of their power. But a toothless outside privately managed club of attorneys that can be brushed aside at the slightest inconvenience obviously isn’t a benefit to judicial oversight.
It’s true, the bucket had a hole in it. But throwing the bucket away means there’s nothing now.
Except possibly the soiled towel that has been declared a “bucket” by executive order, which we might get in the future.