The Justice Department, led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, pointed out the leftist bias of the American Bar Association (ABA) and ordered that it will bo longer have access to non-public information, including bar records.

The ABA uses a ratings process in which their Standing Committee rates each nominee “Well Qualified,” “Qualified” or “Not Qualified.” “Unanimous committee ratings appear as a single rating. In other situations, the rating from the majority or substantial majority (2/3 or more of those voting) of the Committee is recorded first, followed by the rating or ratings of a minority of the Committee. The majority rating is the rating of the committee,” the ABA notes on its website.

“The ABA has a history of taking liberal positions on issues including abortion, the death penalty, same-sex marriage, affirmative action, and the Second Amendment,” National Review stated in 2019. “The organization’s ideological bias has long tainted its ratings of judicial nominees. An entire book on the subject was written as early as 1965, Joel B. Grossman’s Lawyers and Judges: The ABA and the Politics of Judicial Selection.”

Of the 15 members on the ABA’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary in 2019, five donated to Barack Obama’s campaign, three to that of Hillary Clinton, and none to the three Republican nominees between 2008-2016. Incredibly, the ABA gave a minority “Not Qualified” rating to iconic Judge Robert Bork and other conservative legal scholars, including Richard A. Posner, Edith H. Jones, and William H. Pryor, among others.

“For several decades, the American Bar Association has received special treatment and enjoyed special access to judicial nominees,” Bondi wrote in a letter to ABA President William Bay. “In some administrations, the ABA received notice of nominees before a nomination was announced to the public. Some administrations would even decide whether to nominate an individual based on a rating assigned by the ABA.”

She continued:

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

CNN’s chief data analyst Harry Enten revealed on Monday that most Americans agree with the Trump administration’s assessment that higher education needs “a kick in the rear end,” with confidence in colleges plummeting to just 36%.

The decline in Americans’ confidence in higher education has been dramatic over the past decade, Enten explained, citing a recent Gallup poll.

“You go back a decade ago, 57% of Americans had high confidence in higher education. … That number has plummeted … down to 36%,” Enten explained, speaking with Kate Balduan, adding that 68% of Americans believe higher education is “on the wrong track.”

The perception of ideological bias on college campuses is widespread, with Enten revealing that a plurality of Americans agree colleges have a liberal bias, while only a small minority disagree.

“So, do colleges have a liberal bias? I think that’s really the question here. What we see in polling after polling after polling is that the plurality say yes. Overall, look at that. 45% of Americans overall agree with the idea that colleges have a liberal bias. Just 24% disagree with that idea.”

Among Republicans, the sentiment is even stronger, with “67% of Republicans” agreeing that “colleges have a liberal bias,” reflecting why many conservatives have long criticized academia.

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“This is why Donald Trump is so emphatic and so wanting to take on this fight because he knows that Republicans hate universities, hate the administrations, believe they have a liberal bias, and in fact the plurality of Americans overall agree with the idea, agree with Donald Trump, that colleges are in fact a place where bias reigns.”

A lot of Americans agree with Trump: higher ed needs a kick in the rear end. Those with high confidence in higher ed has collapsed: 57% in 2015 to 36% now. 68% (!) say higher ed is on the wrong track.

Also, a plurality of Americans & the GOP agree: colleges have a liberal bias. pic.twitter.com/JZtup3BoGV

— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) May 29, 2025

According to Enten, it’s no longer much of a question of if there is bias, but rather, “it’s a question of whether or not people agree with Trump’s tactics,” although they “definitely agree with him on the idea that there is a problem with higher ed overall.”

These poll results come as Trump has attempted to crack down on universities such as Harvard, which receive billions in federal funding and grants despite rampant DEI initiatives and tolerance of antisemitism on campus.

Trump’s tough stance on higher education may already be having an impact internationally. Webpage views for U.S. university courses from potential students abroad have plummeted by 50% between January and April, according to Enten, suggesting foreign students are looking elsewhere for their education.