The committee of the American Bar Association that rates judicial nominees has added its voice to the evaluation of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, rating her well-qualified.
The vote by the Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary was unanimous except for one abstention, according to the committee’s website. Every justice confirmed since 1993 has received the “well-qualified” rating unanimously. The rating is the committee’s highest.
Though the committee considers its process to be confidential, the ABA says it involves interviewing hundreds of lawyers, judges, and others. Teams of law professors and appellate lawyers examine a nominee’s writings.
The committee is a frequent target of conservatives who argue its ratings are inconsistent and biased, while committee members say they do not consider ideology or politics. In a statement, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) called the latest rating “further evidence of Elena Kagan’s qualifications to serve as an independent Justice on the Supreme Court.”
Gary Marx, executive director of the conservative Judicial Crisis Network, said in a statement that the high rating shows the ABA’s liberal bent. “The ABA has sunk to the level of the Nobel Prize committee, who recently awarded their Peace Prize to a head of state nominated before he had been in office for six weeks,” he said, referring to President Barack Obama.
Updated at 4:16 p.m.
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