Legal Commentary

?The ABA Should Get a New Life?

By Jonathan H. Adler

David Ingram has an interesting post on The BLT on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid?s criticism of the American Bar Association?s criteria for evaluating judicial nominees.

?I think the ABA should get a new life and look at whether people are qualified, not whether they have judicial experience,? Reid said at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he was introducing a nominee from his home state. . . .

The nominee Reid introduced, Gloria Navarro, has been rated qualified by the ABA, but a minority of the committee voted to rate her not qualified, according to the ABA?s list (PDF). The committee doesn?t comment on individual cases, but Reid said there was concern that Navarro has never been a judge. She?s been nominated for the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada.

?The ABA says she hasn?t had judicial experience. That is upsetting to me,? Reid said, noting her work as a government lawyer handling civil litigation and as a lawyer in private practice. Navarro has also been a public defender, according to her White House biography, and Reid said she would be the only female and only Hispanic judge in the district.

Attacking the judiciary as often out-of-touch, Reid even criticized judges? ?robes? and ?fancy chambers.? Such criticism has become more common as prior judicial experience has become almost a prerequisite for nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on February 11, 2010 (boomark / email).