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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada criticized the American Bar Association on Thursday after some members of the organization’s judicial evaluation committee rated a nominee from his state as “not qualified”. The ABA has evaluated nominees for over 50 years. A 15 member committee rates each nominee as either well qualified, qualified or not qualified, based on interviews and background material. The ratings have been controversial over the years, especially with conservatives who believe the committee is biased.
Reid was upset by the ABA’s rating of Gloria Navarro, nominated for the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada. “I think the ABA should get a new life and look at whether people are qualified, not whether they have judicial experience”, Reid said during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he introduced Navarro. Reid also said, “The ABA says she hasn’t had judicial experience. That is upsetting to me…I asked President Obama, ‘Let’s get someone on the court that hasn’t been a judge. I think we need people on the bench who have been out there, like Gloria…She has had experience in the real world of government and in the real world of the law.”
Navarro has never been a judge but she has worked as a government lawyer handling civil litigation, a public defender and a lawyer in private practice.
