For the past several decades, the American Bar Association has played an integral role in vetting the backgrounds and qualifications of presidential judicial nominees, but that era has now drawn to an end.

On Thursday, Attorney General Pam Bondi informed the ABA that it would no longer be granted special access or treatment in vetting President Donald Trump's judicial nominees because of that organization's undeniable partisan bias, the Washington Examiner reported.

Meanwhile, as the left-leaning ABA is excluded from the judicial nominee vetting process, Trump also sharply criticized the right-leaning Federalist Society for the "bad advice" that organization provided him on some judicial nominees in his first term who haven't panned out as anticipated over the intervening years.

ABA is too biased to fairly vet judicial nominees

In an X post on Thursday, Attorney General Bondi wrote, "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."

The post included a screenshot of a letter Bondi sent to ABA President William Bay to remind him of the "special treatment" and "special access" to presidential judicial nominees that the group has "received" and "enjoyed" for decades.

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

"Unfortunately, the ABA no longer functions as a fair arbiter of nominees' qualifications, and its ratings invariably and demonstrably favor nominees put forward by Democratic administrations," Bondi said. "The ABA's steadfast refusal to fix the bias in its ratings process, despite criticism from Congress, the Administration, and the academy, is disquieting."

"Accordingly, while the ABA is free to comment on judicial nominations along with other activist organizations, there is no justification for treating the ABA differently from such other activist organizations and the Department of Justice will not do so," she continued.

"Specifically, the Office of Legal Policy will no longer direct nominees to provide waivers allowing the ABA to access non-public information, including bar records," Bondi added. "Nominees will also not respond to questionnaires prepared by the ABA and will not sit for interviews with the ABA."

ABA has never before been fully excluded from the vetting process

The Examiner noted that the ABA has been involved in the early vetting of judicial nominees since the Eisenhower administration, and while its influence has waned or been limited at times over that stretch, typically during Republican administrations, the organization has never before found itself to be completely excluded from that process -- until now.

A big reason for that, per the outlet, is likely the "aggressive posture" the ABA has embraced in opposition to the Trump administration and its involvement in certain lawsuits that aim to block aspects of President Trump's policy agenda.

As for the possibility of an ABA lawsuit to win back its special treatment in the judicial nominee vetting process, former Trump White House attorney Robert Luther III dismissed the idea and told the Examiner, "There’s no constitutional right for a private organization to have access to government nominees. That’d be a ridiculous lawsuit."

Trump also criticized the Federalist Society's "bad advice" on judges

Meanwhile, also on Thursday, President Trump posted a rant on Truth Social about the federal judges who ruled against him on tariffs that veered off into criticism of the right-leaning Federalist Society and its former "sleazebag" founder and leader, Leonard Leo, who some critics accuse of enjoying outsized influence over some of the judges the group has promoted to be judicial nominees.

"I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations. This is something that cannot be forgotten!" Trump wrote. "With all of that being said, I am very proud of many of our picks, but very disappointed in others. They always must do what’s right for the Country!"