Justice Department Limits Employee Engagement in ABA Events (1)

The Justice Department will not allow employees to participate in American Bar Association events in their official capacities or on official time, in the Trump administration’s latest salvo against the legal group that has been critical of its actions.

Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche’s Wednesday memo, sent to department employees and obtained by Bloomberg Law, escalates a clash between the administration and the voluntary lawyers’ association. The ABA has publicly denounced recent threats against federal judges and joined litigation against the government.

DOJ employees may not, while acting in their official capacities, “speak at, attend, or otherwise participate” in events hosted by the ABA, nor may they attend them during business hours as employee time is one the department’s “largest expenditures,” the memo said.

The department will no longer use taxpayer funds to pay for travel to ABA events, and employees who participate in events may not use their title in a way that could suggest the department “endorses or sanctions” their personal views or those of the ABA, the memo said.

DOJ employees in policymaking roles may not hold leadership positions in the ABA, renew existing memberships, or “write, speak, or otherwise publish materials in ABA-sponsored media of any kind” without approval, Blanche said. These employees may only participate in ABA events if approved by their component head and the deputy attorney general.

Career staff may attend ABA events and remain members, but any written contributions to the bar association’s published materials must be done off-duty and without government resources. The memo clarifies that employees cannot use any government device, internet access, or research databases to help them prepare materials for the ABA to publish.

Blanche attributed the department’s change in position to the bar association’s recent lawsuit with other organizations challenging the administration’s freeze on foreign aid funding.

“The Department is actively litigating against the ABA, yet the Department continues to expend taxpayer dollars on ABA events, the ABA continues to use the participation of Department personnel to attract attendance to those events, and the ABA continues to use Department-engagement to legitimize positions it advances that are contrary to the federal government’s policies,” Blanche wrote.

The ABA is “free to litigate in support of activist causes,” but the department’s speech “must be focused on achieving the Department’s core Constitutional mission,” the memo said.

Blanche’s latest action follows a similar move by the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, who in February banned political appointees from holding leadership roles in the ABA, participating in or attending ABA events, or renewing their ABA memberships.

The decision also comes amid a growing battle between Trump and the legal industry, as the administration targets major law firms with executive orders stripping their security clearances and restricting their access to federal clients. The missives have prompted a number of firms to strike deals with the administration to provide millions in pro bono services for the president’s favored causes.

A spokesperson for the ABA didn’t immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.