American Bar Association Mary Smith says the ABA is deeply saddened by the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein who Smith called “a true friend of justice and a defender of the importance of an independent, impartial judiciary.
Feinstein was a longtime member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the committee’s ranking member from 2017 to 2021.
Smith noted that Feinstein objected in 2017 when federal judicial nominees were rushed to the committee without proper vetting by the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary.
Feinstein said at the time the ABA evaluations of judicial nominees were important “and that senators ought to be able to look at these ratings and take them into account before a nominee’s hearing.”
Feinstein also was a co-sponsor of the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act, supported by the ABA and adopted by Congress in 2022.
The act strengthened judicial independence by protecting the public dissemination of judges’ personal information. The law was named after the son of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a disgruntled litigant.
“Serving as a federal judge shouldn’t put your life or the lives of your family at risk,” Feinstein said.
Smith said Feinstein “understood the vital importance of the rule of law in the United States and used her position in the Senate to ensure that it remained strong.
In 2018, Feinstein received the ABA Justice Award for her support of the Legal Services Corporation and her leadership in the pursuit of justice for all.
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