{"id":2442901,"date":"2025-06-04T15:28:02","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T19:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mike-lee-pans-american-bar-association-as-bigger-advocacy-group-than-federalist-society\/"},"modified":"2025-06-04T15:29:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T19:29:48","slug":"mike-lee-pans-american-bar-association-as-bigger-advocacy-group-than-federalist-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mike-lee-pans-american-bar-association-as-bigger-advocacy-group-than-federalist-society\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Lee pans American Bar Association as bigger advocacy group than Federalist Society"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmike-lee-pans-american-bar-association-as-bigger-advocacy-group-than-federalist-society%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2442901&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) criticized the American Bar Association (ABA), asserting that it functions as a partisan advocacy group with a greater influence than the conservative Federalist Society. In defense of his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/psaki-criticizes-biden-for-not-threatening-to-withhold-weapons-to-israel-earlier\/\" title=\"Psaki blames Biden for delayed weapon threat to Israel\">long-standing connection<\/a> to the Federalist Society, Lee characterized it as a forum for debate, contrasting it with the ABA&#8217;s alleged ideological bias similar to the Democratic National Committee. He expressed concern over the ABA&#8217;s previous role in vetting judicial nominations, wich the Trump administration recently revoked, citing the ABA&#8217;s demonstrable bias. The hearing also included discussions about judicial nominees and the divisions within the Republican Party regarding judicial selections. Despite Trump&#8217;s recent criticisms of the Federalist Society, all nominees connected to him had ties to the group, raising questions about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-derangement-syndrome-will-destroy-the-judicial-branch\/\" title=\"Trump Derangement Syndrome Will Destroy The Judicial Branch\">future judicial appointments<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Mike Lee pans American Bar Association as bigger advocacy group than Federalist Society<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2138827\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/mike-lee\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Mike Lee<\/a> (R-UT) criticized the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/american-bar-association\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">American Bar Association<\/a> during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, framing the legal group as a partisan advocacy organization that dwarfs the ideological influence of the conservative-leaning Federalist Society.<\/p>\n<p>Responding to Democrats&rsquo; comments earlier in the hearing, Lee defended his decades-long affiliation with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/federalist-society\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Federalist Society<\/a>, saying it is &ldquo;not an advocacy group&rdquo; but rather a forum for debate.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/3431053\/house-investigation-immigration-history-suspect-boulder-terrorist-attack\/\">House launches inquiry into immigration history of Boulder terrorism suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/3431266\/joe-concha-michael-moore-pledge-of-allegiance\/\">Joe Concha mocks Michael Moore&#8217;s new pledge as &#8216;desperate plea for attention&#8217;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/3431220\/joe-walsh-democratic-party\/\">Joe Walsh announces he is joining the Democratic Party<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) speaks during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee for Kash Patel, President Donald Trump&rsquo;s choice for FBI director, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025.&nbsp;(AP Photo\/Ben Curtis)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s regarded by many as a conservative group, and that&rsquo;s fair, because a lot of its members happen to be conservative,&rdquo; Lee said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s unlike most American law school classrooms &mdash; open to people of all viewpoints.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, Lee said, the ABA &ldquo;is about as ideologically even-handed as the Democratic National Committee.&rdquo; He accused the association of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hubris-exposed\/\" title=\"Hubris Exposed\">wielding outsize influence<\/a> in judicial nominations until the Trump administration recently moved to revoke its privileged access.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, the Justice Department, under the direction of Attorney General Pam Bondi, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/3426079\/bondi-ends-american-bar-association-oversight-trump-judicial-nominations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">ended the ABA&rsquo;s role in vetting judicial nominees<\/a>. Bondi announced the move last week, citing the group&rsquo;s &ldquo;demonstrable&rdquo; bias in favor of Democratic nominees. The DOJ will no longer facilitate ABA access to candidates or require them to respond to its evaluations.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The fact that the ABA had an official role is itself alarming,&rdquo; Lee said. &ldquo;If you want to attack the Federalist Society, look no further than the fact that the ABA is itself an advocacy organization. The Federalist Society is not.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Lee&rsquo;s remarks came amid testimony from 6th Circuit nominee Whitney Hermandorfer, one of President Donald Trump&rsquo;s first judicial picks since returning to the White House. When asked by Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) about her ties to the Federalist Society, Hermandorfer said she had been a member since she was in graduate school.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the hearing, some Democratic members grew even more distracted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/3428896\/trump-world-turns-on-leonard-leo-judicial-rift-widens\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Trump&rsquo;s growing rift with the Federalist Society<\/a>, at times focusing less on the nominees before them and more on Trump&rsquo;s sideshow comments about the conservative legal group.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the committee&rsquo;s top Democrat, pounced on Trump&rsquo;s recent attacks against Leonard Leo, co-chairman of the Federalist Society, calling Trump &ldquo;inconsistent.&rdquo; Leo, not the Federalist Society, was foundational to influencing Trump&rsquo;s federal judicial selections in his first term, including three Supreme Court nominees.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The Federalist Society is now a suspect sleazebag group who used to be the required approval before anyone&rsquo;s taken seriously,&rdquo; Durbin said, referencing Trump&rsquo;s words when referring to the group&rsquo;s co-chairman.<\/p>\n<p>Sources familiar with the matter confirmed to the <em>Washington Examiner <\/em>that Trump is frustrated with some of Leo&rsquo;s recommendations, such as Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/3426215\/trump-blame-tariff-ruling-federalist-society-leonard-leo-judicial-nominations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">lashed out publicly after one of his first-term nominees<\/a> to the Court of International Trade sided against him in a tariffs lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) took it a step further than Durbin, labeling the <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >current conservative legal divide<\/a> a &ldquo;food fight&rdquo; between factions of the Right.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We have this very potent internal food fight between the Leo polluter faction and the MAGA election denial faction,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s highly revelatory about what has been done to the judicial branch.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/senate\/3430505\/senate-hosts-first-crop-trump-judicial-nominees-famous-fighting-biden-missouri-courts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"><strong>SENATE HOSTS FIRST CROP OF TRUMP JUDICIAL NOMINEES FAMOUS FOR FIGHTING BIDEN IN COURT<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Despite Trump&rsquo;s jabs, all five of his nominees who lined up for testimony Wednesday, including four from the Missouri attorney general&rsquo;s office, have some ties to the Federalist Society. That continuity has raised doubts about whether Trump&rsquo;s second-term picks will differ meaningfully from his first, even as his rhetoric surrounding his judicial strategy grows more confrontational.<\/p>\n<p>The hearing concluded just after 1 p.m. With Republicans in the Senate majority, this slate of nominees could proceed to a full Senate vote as early as next month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_2138827\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"2138827\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mike Lee criticizes the ABA as a partisan group, overshadowing the Federalist Society<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2633,"featured_media":2442902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/MIKE-LEE.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[51848,46888,47286,35410,5894],"class_list":["post-2442901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-american-bar-association","tag-federalist-society","tag-legal-advocacy","tag-mike-lee","tag-politics"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/MIKE-LEE.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2633"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2442901"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2442905,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442901\/revisions\/2442905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2442902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2442901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2442901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2442901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}