WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2022 – Following today’s nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, the American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary will immediately start its independent, nonpartisan peer evaluation of the nominee. The Standing Committee will work expeditiously to complete this process in a thorough and fair manner.
Since 1953, the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary has conducted comprehensive peer reviews of every nominee to the federal bench, from trial courts to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The evaluations are based on the professional qualifications of nominees. The Standing Committee, which operates wholly independently of the American Bar Association, evaluates nominees using information provided by knowledgeable judges, lawyers and other colleagues about the nominee’s professional competence, integrity and judicial temperament. The committee does not consider the nominee’s philosophy, political affiliation or ideology.
On the basis of this information, the Standing Committee publicly releases a rating of each nominee as Well Qualified, Qualified or Not Qualified.
While it is important to fill any vacancy to the Supreme Court in a timely manner, the Senate process of advice and consent must allow adequate time for thorough consideration of Jackson’s nomination and must not be rushed due to partisan considerations. That is essential to the process of assessing lifetime appointments to the highest court in the United States.
For more information on how the Standing Committee’s evaluation process works, see the committee’s handbook here. Previous ratings can be found online here.
The ABA is the largest voluntary association of lawyers in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.