On Wednesday, July 23rd, 2026, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) confronted American Bar Association (ABA) President Michelle A. Behnke during a House Oversight Committee Task Force hearing focused on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Constitutional Abuses. Gill repeatedly questioned Behnke about the ABA's diversity principles and whether they would justify rejecting a third Black Supreme Court justice nomination.

Gill, who chairs the task force, accused the ABA of using its accreditation authority to pressure law schools into adopting race-conscious admissions policies and mandatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) coursework. Ahead of the hearing, Gill stated, "DEI is a cancerous ideology that promotes unlawful discrimination and steals opportunities from Americans who would otherwise earn jobs and law school admissions spots on merit."

During the hearing, Gill pressed Behnke on President Joe Biden's 2022 pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, questioning whether race was a clear factor in Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination. He also highlighted that two of the Court's nine justices are Black—approximately 22% of the Court compared to about 13% of the U.S. population—and asked if that meant the Senate should reject a third Black nominee based solely on race.

Behnke defended the ABA's commitment to diversity, stating that "the ABA believes that diversity in all of its forms is important," and that representation should "roughly resemble America's racial makeup" and "represent all of what people are."

The exchange was described as tense, with Gill pressing Behnke on whether the ABA's diversity principles would justify rejecting a third Black Supreme Court justice, a question she declined to answer.

Brandon Gill
Brandon Gill, R-Texas, leaves the House Republican Conference caucus meeting in the Capitol on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)