Labor lawyers told to ‘stop engaging’ with American Bar Association in official capacities

Lawyers for the U.S. Department of Labor have been informed they need to “stop engaging” during their official duties with the American Bar Association.

“The ABA is strategically equivocal about its ideological stance,” explained Solicitor Jonathan Berry in an email to Labor Department staff members. “Equivocal in that the ABA holds itself out as non-ideological at certain times, but takes decidedly radical ideological positions at others.”

Berry informed staff lawyers they are not to use tax funds to participate in any ABA events or use their government job titles at them.

The ABA long has been criticized for adopting extreme leftist positions on social issues and requiring lawyers to follow that agenda.

A report from Fox News said it is the ABA’s “liberal activism” that is objectionable.

It’s not the first time the ABA has been criticized by the administration of President Donald Trump.

The report noted the Department of Justice adopted a similar position just last year and ended more than $3 million in federal grants to ABA programs.

A judge later claimed ending the funding wouldn’t be allowed.

But the Federal Trade Commission also cut all ties to the ABA, charging that the ABA’s antitrust section “promotes the business interests of Big Tech.”

Republicans frequently have accused the ABA of being partisan, of aligning its official requirements for lawyers with leftist viewpoints.

The ABA itself brags that it promotes “LGBTQ+” initiatives, is pro-abortion, anti-2nd Amendment and all in on the “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” ideology.

Attorney General Pam Bondi also has confirmed that she will not let the ABA know in advance about judicial nominees, preventing the organization from lobbying for its favorites before they are announced.

“There is genuine benefit to our attorneys engaging with the employer bar in ABA programs, but the benefit genuinely feeds the problem too: Our participation in ‘neutral’ ABA events contributes to institutional stature the ABA leverages to advance radical goals as if they were ‘neutral,’” Berry wrote. “No more.”