The American Bar Association is accused of bypassing a conservative panel in the law school accreditation battle

FIRST ON FOX: The expected list of the American Bar Association from its council on law school accreditation ended up not being shown at the Federalist Society’s conservative Federalist Society event on the ABA’s “independence” in law school accreditation.

The Trump administration has accused the ABA of acting as a politicized gatekeeper, with top agencies barring their members from attending ABA events, and its diversity-related school accreditation standards deemed illegal. Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi later stepped up that effort by telling the ABA it would no longer get special access to the court’s vetting process, which followed concerns that its process for vetting federal court nominees was also biased. .

At Thursday’s event, which was across the street from where the ABA held its spring antitrust conference, America First Legal President Gene Hamilton suggested the ABA not show up because the group’s position on the issue is “indefensible.”

“I don’t know the whole story. I mean, I’m just the president, but I think there’s a certain amount – if I were a betting man – my suspicion is that the situation of the ABA and their position and their involvement in this process is inevitable from the point of view of someone who is trying to present themselves as an impartial group concerned,” said the impartial schools. Hamilton.

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“When faced with hard facts and evidence and data and real information from real people, a lot of people, not just one person, but a lot of people, it doesn’t make a good place if you’re trying to maintain an image that doesn’t match the truth.”

Scenes from Thursday’s event marked what they described as a literal clash with the ABA and its affiliated law enforcement agencies. First Assistant Attorney General of Texas Brent Webster, for example, asserted that the political establishment of the judiciary became a reality for him when the State Bar of Texas sought to revoke his and Attorney General Ken Paxton’s law licenses in connection with the Texas litigation after the 2020 election.

Webster said that battle, which ended with the Texas Supreme Court acquitting him, helped reveal to Texas officials “how strong” the bar is and influenced the state’s decision to loosen the ABA’s law school accreditation.

First Assistant Attorney General of Texas, Brent Webster, (right) speaks with First American Law President Gene Hamilton (left) at the Federalist Society event in Washington, DC about the American Bar Association’s “independence” over law school accreditation. (Fox News Digital)

Meanwhile, David Dewhirst, Solicitor General of the State of Florida, made a similar argument about the experience of the law school of St. Thomas University in Miami, which he said was left in uncertainty for a long time by the ABA about what its Catholicism could be and the non-discrimination standards of the ABA, especially about sexual orientation and gender identity.

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Together, those stories were presented as real-world examples of a widespread complaint underscored at Thursday’s event — that the ABA no longer functions as a neutral professional organization, but as an ideological gatekeeper with the power to shape who is trained, licensed and hired in the legal profession.

Florida Attorney General David Dewhirst speaks at the Federalist Society event in Washington, DC about the American Bar Association’s “independence” over law school accreditation. (Fox News Digital)

A representative from the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar said former Colorado Supreme Court justice and Chair-elect of the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Bar Admissions, Melissa Hart, had no idea she was on the panel. They added that the invitation, which was sent to them on March 13, according to the Federalist Society, was “last minute” and no one attended, although the Federalist Society told Fox News that their open invitation to the ABA was confirmed about a week after it was sent.

“From the ABA’s point of view, when they’re under a lot of pressure right now from the federal administration, the states and a lot of people waking up to their shenanigans — it makes it a difficult time to be in a place that’s a little more specific and less clear and to the point,” Hamilton said of the ABA’s absence from the event.

American Bar Association (ABA) (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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At the event, Hamilton presented a new report from America First Legal, which showed that the ABA’s Standing Committee on Amicus Curiae Briefs, over the past decade, has produced 80% of liberal arguments that lean left, 20% are neutral and zero consistently aligned. In all six cases, the ABA filed amicus briefs involving Trump, the ABA argued against the president or his allies.

“The ABA requires that amicus briefs be approved by its board of governors and must comply with existing ABA policy or involve issues of ‘special importance to lawyers or the legal profession,'” said a press release from the AFL. “Short about being a natural born citizen, transgender health care children and the Texas heartbeat law falls well outside that mandate,” the AFL said in a press release announcing the new study.