Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, wants to strip the American Bar Association of its official role in judging the qualifications of judicial nominees, saying it has been swayed by its own strong political stands.
He and three other Republican members of the Senate Judicial Committee wrote Attorney General Dick Thornburgh this week saying the ABA's recent resolution to essentially support abortion on demand was the last straw."We are concerned that the ABA will irresistibly scrutinize prospective nominees to see whether nominees share the ABA's views," wrote Hatch and Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa, Gordon Humphrey of New Hampshire and Alan Simpson of Wyoming.
"Since the ABA is now an avowed advocate of an unlimited pro-abortion position, it can no longer make any credible or legitimate claim to neutrality in evaluating judicial nominees," they said.
The ABA says it judges a nominee's competence, integrity and credentials in a non-partisan manner - and its ratings are given higher priority and importance than views expressed by other interest groups. But conservatives say the ABA has consistently given low marks to qualified conservatives.
Hatch has blamed that on the failed nominations of such people as Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court. Hatch led the unsuccessful fight to confirm Bork.
"The ABA, like any other organization, has the right to take whatever position it wishes," the senators wrote. "However, a group that has chosen to align itself with a particular side on such controversial issues as abortion can hardly pretend to be a nonpartisan organization."
The senators also noted that the ABA has voted to take stands to support anti-gun legislation, support controversial treaties, support legislation to overturn recent Supreme Court labor law decisions and support changes that would make death sentences more difficult to impose.