The American Bar Association long has not just leaned left but actively pursued progressive agendas.
For example, it has demanded diversity agendas for law schools, it insists law schools teach students have a duty to “work to eliminate racism,” it uses federal grant money to push “activist causes,” it routinely gives liberal judicial candidates higher ratings than conservatives, it pushes “vague” ethics rules that are cited when conservative lawyers are targeted, it insists on adherence to controversial ideologies like transgenderism and affirmative action.
The result of its move to the left already is in evidence: “In 1979, approximately half of all attorneys in the United States were members of the ABA. That number has shrunk to 14 percent,” according to a report from the Star News Network.
But now that drop in influence, already begun, is being supported by the Trump administration.
It has taken a number of actions to minimize the influence of the ABA with public criticism from White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields who said, “President Trump represents the people, not a board of snooty, leftist lawyers.”
On his first day in Office, Trump froze tens of millions of dollars in USAID and State Department cash that was intended for the ABA.
“Some of the five grants it was about to receive totaled $3.2 million, awarded to the ABA Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence for training attorneys representing victims of gender-based and LGBTQ violence,” the report said.
The ABA sued, claiming it has a First Amendment right to government money, and Judge Christopher Cooper of Washington, a Barack Obama judge, sided with the ABA on the trial court level, a decision now on appeal.
The ABA also sued over millions of dollars in cuts to USAID spending because it affects the organization’s work to train overseas lawyers.
Once again, an entry level court judge ruled for the ABA.
The American Bar Association has lost its way, and we do not believe it serves as a fair arbiter of judicial nominees.@TheJusticeDept will no longer give the ABA the access they’ve taken for granted. pic.twitter.com/ViqX9IRa7w
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) May 29, 2025
The USAID funded American Bar Association is ideologically captured by the Left. We just cut its privileged spot in the judicial selection process.
I’m re-upping my call to the @SenJudiciaryGOP to disregard the failed ABA & was glad to see @AGPamBondi join our cause last week. pic.twitter.com/W9UJazeUoh
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) June 4, 2025
The American Bar Association weighs nominees on politics, not qualifications. Some members of the ABA committee even ruled that Clarence Thomas – one of the greatest jurists of our time- was “not qualified” to serve as a judge.
That’s just one example.
The ABA has become… pic.twitter.com/343oLkNFgi
— Chad Mizelle (@ChadMizelle47) May 29, 2025
Then Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson banned political appointees from “holding ABA leadership roles, attending events, or renewing memberships, citing the ABA’s ‘leftist advocacy,’” the report explained.
He said, “The president of the ABA recently issued a statement accusing the Trump-Vance Administration of ‘wide-scale affronts to the rule of law.’ What followed was a breathless screed leveled against President Donald J. Trump’s swift and tireless delivery on his promises to the American people to confront our existential immigration crisis and end waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government. This statement was not a sober assessment of the law. It was a collection of Democrat political talking points with the ABA’s logo affixed at the top.”
Adding to the conversation was Attorney General Pam Bondi who accused the ABA of “unlawful race and sex discrimination” because of its DEI mandates.
Then Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memo “prohibiting DOJ lawyers from attending or speaking at ABA events, or holding office or membership in the organization, with limited exceptions,” the report said.
Trump himself signed an order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to decide if the ABA’s status as a recognized accreditor of law schools should be dropped.
And most recently, Bondi told the ABA the Department of Justice no longer will comply with the organization’s “ratings process for judicial nominees.”
That was decided because, she said, the ABA “no longer functions as a fair arbiter of nominees’ qualifications, and its ratings invariably and demonstrably favor nominees put forth by Democratic administrations. The ABA’s steadfast refusal to fix the bias in its ratings process, despite criticism from Congress, the Administration, and the academy, is disquieting.”
The report noted the ABA already was in financial straits, with revenue dropping and layoffs taking place.