Just when Senator Hatch was starting to come around on ABA ratings (since they liked Miguel Estrada), the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports here that the American Bar Association gave Fourth Circuit nominee Claude Allen only a "qualified" rating, in a split decision, with some voting that he was "not qualified." By contrast, the ABA committee
The members of the ABA's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary are listed here. In this term of Congress, as shown here, other findings of the Committee included: that Allyson Duncan, nominated for the Fourth Circuit, and Glen Conrad, nominated for the W.D. Va., were "well qualified," and that Judge Terence Boyle nominated for the Fourth Circuit and Judges Thomas Varlan and Ronnie Greer of the E.D. Tenn. were "qualified," with some members contending that Varlan was "not qualified." I believe all but Judge Boyle and Mr. Allen have been confirmed by the Senate.
Besides Allen and Boyle, the committee also gave only "qualified" ratings in this Congress to appeals court nominees Deborah Cook, Jeffrey Sutton, Timothy Tymkovich, and William Pryor, all of which suggests that politics (rightly or wrongly) is still part of the measuring stick applied by the committee.
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