Just moments ahead of what’s sure to be a week-long set of contentious Senate hearings to debate her confirmation, the American Bar Association has awarded Amy Coney Barrett, Trump’s pick to fill the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, their highest rating of “well-qualified” for a position on the nation’s highest bench.
“A substantial majority of the Standing Committee determined that Judge Barrett is ‘Well Qualified’” to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States,” ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary Chair Randall D. Noel wrote in the letter on Sunday, adding that “a minority is of the opinion that she is ‘Qualified.’”
The ABA rates potential justices according to three categories: “well qualified,” “qualified,” and “not qualified.” The committee, which has offered its recommendations on all federal judicial nominees for 67 years and counting, bases its determinations on “qualities of integrity, professional competence, and judicial temperament,” and “does not consider the nominee’s philosophy, political affiliation or ideology,” the ABA stated.
The ABA recommendation has long been called the ““gold standard” for evaluating SCOTUS nominees, including by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).