Eric Schmitt Praises Move To Block ‘Woke, Failed’ American Bar Association From Judicial Selection

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During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week, Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) spoke about the American Bar Association.

Transcript

00:00government by the far right. Thank you, Chairman. Senator Schmidt. Thank you. I want to first say a

00:07brief word on the judicial nomination success that just happened within the last week that we led

00:12right here on this committee, kicking the woke, failed American Bar Association out of its

00:18privileged spot in the judicial selection process. In March, I sent a letter along with four other

00:24members of this committee informing the American Bar Association that we would no longer consider

00:29ABA recommendations on pending legislation or nominees, crippling their role in the Senate's

00:34piece of the judicial confirmation process. Last Friday, Attorney General Bondi joined our cause,

00:40telling the ABA that it would be treated no differently than any other leftist activist

00:45group in the DOJ piece of the judicial confirmation process. I invite the rest of my colleagues to

00:50join this important cause. The ABA is an ideologically captured institution, and it has failed in its

00:57core mission. While the ABA stayed silent during the weaponization of our justice system under Merrick

01:04Garland and Joe Biden, the ABA now has something to say on nearly every policy position by the Trump

01:10administration. Beyond that, the ABA has embraced cultural Marxism by forcing its DEI and woke initiatives

01:18on law schools across the country. When we look at these videos from law school graduations, we see

01:24activists, not lawyers, not future jurists, not people who can keep our streets safe. And this is downstream

01:32from the disastrous policies put in place by the American Bar Association. The American Bar Association is

01:38also biased in its judicial selection process against Republican presidents' nominees. It is high time for us to

01:46completely sever our link once and for all. This committee should treat the ABA no differently than

01:53any other leftist activist group in our internal process for future legislative recommendations. And I

02:00applaud Attorney General Bondi for taking this pivotal step at DOJ. Ms. Hermandorfer, with that being said,

02:09I see that you were a member of the ABA while in law school. It's okay. We all make youthful indiscretions. I'm not

02:15going to hold that against you. I've seen a lot of resumes in my previous job in this one and it's

02:22very impressive. I think the breadth and the range of your experience, who you've had a chance to work

02:28with, who you've got a chance to sort of be mentored by, now in your role playing a similar role in

02:35mentoring lawyers and taking up important causes in Tennessee. That experience spans from

02:43you know, administrative law and free speech cases that often would come before the Supreme Court. I think

02:51it's important to point out that in many ways that breadth of experience

02:57can compare very well to somebody with maybe a perhaps more narrow focus for a longer period of time.

03:02In those, in that experience, how do you think you bring that to this position that you're being

03:10nominated for, a very important position, that experience you've had? Sure. So I think familiarity with

03:17the subject matter, the bread and butter of federal courts of appeals are statutory interpretation,

03:23interpreting other legal texts, applying constitutional rules, and I've had the opportunity to immerse

03:31myself in that at the highest level for the past number of years now. And so I think familiarity with

03:37the subject matter allows you to immediately come in with confidence and fulfill, carry out your article

03:44three role in deciding what the cases require holding. And I think being able to jump in

03:52is especially important, given that many of these cases do proceed on an expedited timeline. And I've

03:58litigated, you know, emergency cases in the Sixth Circuit, and you're often under the gun. And I think

04:07my practice has been very fast paced, preliminary injunction motions, emergency appeals. And so that pace

04:14and complexity combined will, I would hope, suit me well to make an impact and help the court

04:22discharge its duties. I think, you know, given the uniqueness of of your background and the number of, I mean,

04:28justices on the Supreme Court that you've you've had a chance to work with, what would you say

04:31that you, what experience specifically would you say you've drawn from any one of them as far as

04:37decision making or or temperament? I think humility is one thing that really comes to mind. It is an

04:47extraordinary power, the article three power, to decide cases and controversies and settles parties

04:53rights and the most important cases, at least to the parties and certainly to the country sometimes.

04:58And with that power, again, comes great responsibility and humility to understand the proper role of a

05:05judge is to interpret the law and not to make the law or bend the law to whatever policy preferences the

05:11judge might have individually. And I think the justices and judge for whom I've clerked are models of

05:17that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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