ABA Day 2026: Advocating for judicial safety, access to justice

March 26, 2026

ABA Day 2026: Advocating for judicial safety, access to justice

The legal profession gathered in Washington, D.C., March 24-26, to raise a powerful voice for judicial security and access to justice. ABA Day 2026 is the association's coordinated advocacy event that engages attorneys, law students and advocates from across the legal community.

This year, more than 200 advocates traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with lawmakers during ABA Day. They will be joined by hundreds more participating digitally through ABA Day Online on March 31 and ABA Day At Home March 30-April 1, expanding the reach of lawyers around the country.

At the close of the lobbying effort, participants from every state, plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands, will have engaged with members of Congress and their staffs either at home, online or in Washington. The priority issues for ABA Day 2026 are:

• Judicial safety and security: The ABA urged the House members to follow suit with the Senate and swiftly pass the Countering Threats and Attacks on Our Judges Act, bipartisan legislation to create a national database for state judicial threat information to help improve judicial security and the quality of justice in state and local courts. The law would create, staff and operate a State Judicial Threat and Intelligence Resource Center through the existing State Justice Institute to compile and analyze information about the frequency and severity of threats so best practices can be shared among all states.
• Access to legal services: Access to justice remains one of the ABA's core principles. The ABA is advocating for robust funding of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), which provides civil legal representation for low-income individuals and other legal services following natural disasters. While thanking Congress for its longstanding support for LSC and its decision to provide it with $540 million for FY 2026, a modest 3.6% cut from FY 2024 and FY 2025, the ABA urged Congress to fully fund LSC in 2027.
• Effective Assistance of Counsel in the Digital Era Act: Attorneys and their federally incarcerated clients are required to waive claims that their emails are privileged as a condition of using the only digital network available. This is because the Federal Bureau of Prisons network is unable to respect the same confidentiality it recognizes with regard to U.S. mail, phone calls and in-person visits. The ABA is advocating for the passage of the bipartisan Effective Assistance of Counsel in the Digital Era Act, which would halt this historic practice by balancing legitimate law enforcement interests with the Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel. It requires the government to obtain a warrant to access any of the messages and then an independent review done to confirm whether any portion of the messages is not shielded by the attorney-client privilege.
• Funding public defenders: The ABA is asking Congress to fully fund the Defender Services Office (DSO) for FY2027 at $1.79B (a 1.5% increase over current funding). The Supreme Court held in Johnson v. Zerbst that the Sixth Amendment requires that indigent defendants must be provided counsel in federal criminal cases unless they knowingly waive the right. Federal representation in these cases is provided by the courts through the DSO, either from federal public and community defender organizations or through a panel of private attorneys who agree to take the cases at a reduced rate. These panel attorneys handle about 40% of total cases. For FY2026, Congress fully funded the office for the first time in years at $1.76 billion, which averted a worsening crisis and allowed the DSO to begin rebuilding after years of damaging shortfalls.

Other issues that will be advocated for digitally during ABA Day Online include support for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program and increasing awareness of artificial intelligence as a legislative issue.

During the event, ABA President Michelle A. Behnke presented Justice Awards to Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).

Welsh was honored for his support of public defenders. Welch, who started his career as a lawyer as a public defender, said there has "never been a time more important to have people standing up for the rule of law and access to justice."

Collins was recognized for her support of LSC funding.

In addition, the AccessLex Institute was named the recipient of the 2026 ABA Grassroots Award, recognizing the nonprofit organization's sustained advocacy for public service loan forgiveness and its extensive research into the impact of student debt on legal education.

The in-person ABA Day wrapped up March 26 with more office visits with congressional members and staffers as well as addresses from House members.

Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY), chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, spoke to ABA members about AI and the issues involving its regulation. He claimed that Europe over-regulates AI, and China under-regulates it. While he said America has the brain power to lead the world in AI, "we need to find the sweet spot" in the regulatory structure to truly succeed.

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), original co-sponsor of the bipartisan Countering Threats and Attacks on Our Judges Act, also spoke at the meeting about the importance of protecting judges and the need to work to pass the bill. Sessions also talked about our divided nation and the urgent need to find common ground. "Every one of us should be in the business of selling Americanism," he said.