American Bar Association
Encyclopedia : A : AM : AME : American Bar Association
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important non-controversial activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation of model legal codes, of which the most important is a code of ethical standards for lawyers. The Model Code of Professional Responsibility (1969) and/or the newer Model Rules of Professional Conduct (1983) have been adopted in 49 state jurisdictions and the District of Columbia. The only exception is California, which has refused to adopt either (see State Bar of California), although a few sections of the California Rules of Professional Responsibility were clearly influenced by the ABA models.
According to the ABA, it "provides law school accreditation, continuing legal education, information about the law, programs to assist lawyers and judges in their work, and initiatives to improve the legal system for the public. The Mission of the American Bar Association is to be the national representative of the legal profession, serving the public and the profession by promoting justice, professional excellence and respect for the law." (www.abanet.org)
The Association publishes a general magazine for all members, the ABA Journal. ABA members may also join subject-specific "sections," and each section publishes a variety of newsletters and magazines for its members. The sections also hold their own meetings.
The ABA has a House of Delegates which acts as the organization's primary body for adopting new policies and recommendations as part of the association's official position.
The ABA has been criticized for perceived elitism and an over-representation of white male corporate defense lawyers in its makeup; in 1925, African-American lawyers formed the National Bar Association at a time when ABA would not allow them to be members.
However, since the 1960s, the ABA has made great strides in increasing the diversity of its membership. Its membership has grown from less than 11 percent of all American lawyers to roughly 50 percent today. In recent years, the ABA has also drawn some criticism, mainly from the conservative side of the political spectrum, for taking positions on controversial public policy topics such as abortion, capital punishment and gun control. The ABA's official position favoring abortion rights led to the formation of a (much smaller) alternative organization for lawyers, the National Lawyers Association. The Federalist Society sponsors a twice-a-year publication called "ABA Watch" that reports on the political activities of the ABA.
In 1995 Roberta Cooper Ramo became the first woman president of the American Bar Association since its inception in 1878. In 2003 Dennis W. Archer, former mayor of Detroit, Michigan, became the first African-American president of the ABA. He was followed immediately by the second, Robert J. Grey, Jr. of Richmond, Virginia for the 2004-2005 term.
Rating of judicial nominees
For decades, the ABA has participated in the federal judicial nomination process by purporting to vett nominees and giving them a rating ranging from "not qualified" to "well qualified." The process has been accused by some, including the Federalist Society, of having a liberal bias. For example, the ABA gave Ronald Reagan's judicial nominees Richard Posner and Frank H. Easterbrook low "qualified/not qualified" ratings;[link] later, the ABA gave Bill Clinton judicial nominees with similar resumes "well qualified" ratings.[link] Meanwhile, Judges Posner and Easterbrook have gone on to become the two most highly-cited judges in the federal appellate judiciary.[link] In 2001, the George W. Bush administration announced that it would cease cooperating with the ABA in advance of judicial nominations. The ABA continues to rate nominees. In 2005, the ABA gave John Roberts, George W. Bush's nomination for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, a unanimous "well qualified" rating. It also gave a unanimous "well qualified" rating to appellate court nominee Miguel Estrada, who never took his seat because his nomination was filibustered. However, it gave only a "qualified/not-qualified" rating to nominee Janice Rogers Brown.[link]. In 2006, the ABA gave a unanimous "well-qualified" rating to Judge Samuel Alito, Bush's appointee for Sandra Day O'Connor's Associate Justice position.See also
International American Bar Associations
- Armenian-American Bar Association
- [The Lithuanian-American Bar Association]
- [The Ukrainian American Bar Association]
External links
- [Official website]
- [ABA Law Student Division]
- [ABA Student Lawyer magazine]
- [ABA Health Law Section]
- Federalist Society [ABA Watch]
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