(The Lion) — The American Bar Association (ABA) is taking heat after the group issued an unprecedented letter promising to attack the Trump administration over the “rule of law.”
Records indicate, however, the ABA’s complaint could be motivated by millions of dollars in government funds recently cut off by President Donald Trump’s executive actions.
Additionally, the letter touched off a response from the Trump administration that threatens the ABA’s monopoly-like position in the legal profession in the U.S.
“The American Bar Association supports the rule of law,” wrote William R. Bay, president of the ABA, in an open letter in opposition to Trump administration policies. “That means holding governments, including our own, accountable under law. We stand for a legal process that is orderly and fair. We have consistently urged the administrations of both parties to adhere to the rule of law.”
In response, the chairman of Trump’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Andrew Ferguson, issued guidance that now prohibits FTC appointees from any leadership position at the ABA or even renewing membership with the ABA.
“I am prohibiting FTC political appointees from holding leadership positions in the ABA, participating in ABA events, or renewing any existing ABA memberships,” said Ferguson in the letter shared on X. “The FTC will also stop expending any resources to facilitate any employee’s membership in the ABA” or participation in ABA events.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, went further, calling for an end to the ABA’s “monopoly over law-school accreditation.”
Calling it a “leftist advocacy group,” Lee said, “The ABA’s accreditation monopoly has contributed to the notorious lack of ideological diversity in American legal academia. It’s also fueled an almost palpable hostility toward religious lawyers, professors, students, and law schools.”
Critics have pointed out the ABA’s newfound respect for the “rule of law” runs counter to actions taken by the law group under the Biden administration.
Despite repeated judicial rulings that found President Joe Biden’s unilateral cancellation of student loans through executive orders was a violation of the law, the ABA took no action to uphold the “rule of law” and beat back Biden’s arguably illegal orders.
In fact, in 2020, the ABA admitted that it sought, over a four-year period, loan forgiveness for all full-time employees of the ABA.
And again, despite multiple court rulings concluding Biden’s cancellation of oil and gas leases was illegal and orders that the leases continue, the ABA stood aside as Biden ignored the court.
Instead, it took a 13-state consortium, without the help of the ABA, to sue the administration asking for a contempt of court ruling against the Biden Interior secretary to force the sales of leases.
The leases were only resumed because the administration admitted that “Interior Secretary Deb Haaland risked being held in contempt of court if the auction [of leases] was not held,” reported the New York Times.
The ABA also stood aside and supported Biden administration orders that forced mandatory vaccinations of federal employees, and ultimately tried to force all Americans to get the COVID-19 shot and subsequent boosters.
Others have pointed out the ABA has self-serving reasons for their challenge of Trump.
The ABA sued the Trump administration to stop the president’s cut in funding for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which the ABA admits involves “tens of millions of dollars” granted to the left-wing law group.
USAID grants have been frozen by the Trump administration and the agency’s responsibilities have been turned over to the State Department under the supervision of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
A search of a database run by a conservative that tracks federal grants shows that the unique numeric identifier of the ABA has received over $75 million in grants from the federal government.
That amount doesn’t include an additional $5.75 million given to the ABA’s Fund for Justice and Education for a total of over $80 million delivered to the ABA.
The ABA touts its third most important goal as “eliminating bias and enhancing inclusion in the Association, the legal profession, and the justice system,” as a nod to the discredited practice of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
DEI goals, in fact, rank above “the rule of law” in the ABA’s hierarchy of objectives, according to the ABA’s 2023 impact report.
The federal dollars are a significant boost for a non-profit that had operating expenses of over $237 million in fiscal year 2023, accounting for 34% of its funding, according to the ABA’s own publicly available data.
Significantly, the ABA had an unfunded pension liability of nearly $8 million in 2023, with $349 million in net assets, including $257 million in long-term investments that gained $15.3 million, to increase the ABA assets year-over-year by $2.2 million.
However, the ABA claimed that the Trump halt on USAID to the liberal group has “decimated” the association, according to its legal representation, Arnold & Porter.
But it’s clear from the financial data that the only real threat the Trump administration poses to the ABA is to its balance sheet and political influence operations, critics say.
“You gotta be kidding me. Check feed this morning, see American Bar Association (ABA) is wading into political debate over USAID,” said one Florida attorney. “Took about 5 minutes to confirm they are major beneficiary of gov’t grant funding. The money runs deep on this one.”
