American Bar Association sues justice department over terminated grants

The American Bar Association (ABA) sued the US Department of Justice on Wednesday, claiming it illegally terminated federal grants in retaliation for the lawyer organization’s public criticism of the Trump administration.

The ABA asked a federal judge in Washington DC to block the justice department and US attorney general, Pam Bondi, from canceling $3.2m in grants used to train lawyers to represent victims of domestic and sexual violence, saying the move violates the first amendment.

Neither the justice department nor the ABA immediately responded to requests for comment on Thursday.

The justice department terminated the grants on 10 April – one day after the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, sent a memo barring justice department attorneys from traveling to or speaking at ABA events. Blanche said the organization had engaged in “activist causes” contrary to the department’s mission, according to the suit filed in a Washington DC federal court.

The lawsuit escalates the ongoing conflict between the White House and the ABA, which has about 150,000 members and advocates for the legal profession.

A Trump spokesperson in March called the ABA a “snooty” organization of “leftist lawyers” after the group said in public statements that Trump’s cutbacks to federal agencies and funding was threatening the rule of law. The ABA has also for condemned government officials’ attacks on judges and law firms.

In February, the ABA sued to block Trump from cutting funding to foreign aid organizations.

The ABA’s lawsuit on Wednesday followed Trump’s announcement the same day of an executive order directing the education secretary, Linda McMahon, to assess whether to suspend or terminate the ABA’s status as a federally recognized accreditor of law schools, as part of an executive order focused on reforming higher education accreditation. Bondi in March threatened revocation of the ABA’s accreditor status over its now-suspended diversity and inclusion rule that law schools previously had to follow to be accredited.

According to the suit, the ABA has received grant funding from the justice department’s office of violence against women since 1995. Those grants fund training for lawyers and judges on access for justice for survivors of sexual and domestic violence.

The suit also claims the ABA has lost nearly $69m in federal grants and had to lay off more than 300 staff members as a result.