ED WHELAN HAS MORE ON the Judicial Conference’s attempt to “other” the Federalist Society while treating the ABA as nonpartisan.

The Committee on Codes of Conduct has 15 members, 13 of whom were appointed to their judicial positions by presidents. (The magistrate judge and the bankruptcy judge were appointed by other judges.) Of these 13 presidential appointees, eight were appointed by Democratic presidents and five by Republican presidents.

As I’ve pointed out, the Democratic appointees include Fourth Circuit judge Albert Diaz, who just happens to be not only a member of the ABA’s Judicial Division but the chairman of that body’s Appellate Judge Conference. Another of the Democratic appointees is John J. McConnell Jr. (of the District of Rhode Island), a former plaintiffs’ lawyer who, before taking the bench, donated almost $700,000 to Democratic candidates. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a vocal critic of the Federalist Society, strongly supported McConnell’s nomination and, despite the mediocre (minority “not qualified”) he received from the ABA’s judicial-evaluations committee, hailed him as a “brilliant legal mind.” So the composition of the Committee might go a long way to explain why the draft opinion favors the ABA over the Federalist Society.

As I’ve said before, the left expects the right to dominate the judiciary soon, and on its way out the door is trying to create “ethical” rules to stop the right from acting the way the left has acted for decades.