January 30, 2026

Senator Charles Grassley
Chair, Senate Judiciary Committee

Senator Richard Durbin
Ranking Member, Senate Judiciary Committee

Dear Chairman Grassley and Ranking Member Durbin,

We, the more than two dozen undersigned national and state organizations advocating for civil rights, gender equality, reproductive justice, workers’ rights, environmental justice, and democratic accountability, oppose the nomination of Anna St. John for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. St. John has spent her legal career silencing women, attacking LGBTQ+ rights, and cutting off corporate accountability for everyday people. She leads the Hamilton Legal Law Institute (HLLI), a far-right extremist organization that routinely files lawsuits to attack civil rights, undermine consumer protections, eliminate gender equality, and deny basic human rights. Her nomination raises serious concerns about her ability to serve as an impartial and fair-minded judge who believes in equal justice for all. For these reasons, we urge you to oppose her nomination for a lifetime role in the judiciary.

St. John consistently sides with large corporations over consumers, workers, and ordinary people. In 2021, she testified against victims of sexual harassment and assault and in support of forced arbitration in a hearing on the “Ending Forced Arbitration for Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment” Act. Many members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, including both of you, co-sponsored this bipartisan legislation at a time when forced arbitration silenced thousands of women when they were sexually harassed and sexually assaulted. The wealthy and the powerful continue to weaponize forced arbitration as a way to hide wrongdoing and avoid accountability.

Despite claiming to be a “consumer advocate,” St. John actually spent years defending big corporations when they hurt people. After working in a large law firm, she moved on to lead the so-called Center for Class Action Fairness (CCAF), an organization founded to restrict and attack class action settlements when corporations are held accountable for misconduct. CCAF was a sub-unit of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, whose funding comes from millions in “charitable” contributions from Koch family foundations, The American Conservative, Monsanto, the American Bankers Association, and the Exxon-Mobil Corporation. Class actions are one of the few meaningful avenues for everyday people to challenge corporate wrongdoing that makes life less affordable. Appointing a judge with such demonstrated hostility towards this legitimate legal process would further erode the public’s trust in a judicial system that increasingly favors corporations and the wealthy over ordinary Americans.

St. John has also authored or co-authored numerous amicus briefs undermining LGBTQ+ rights. In 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, St. John supported allowing businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ+ individuals under the guise of religious freedom. Similarly, in Green v. Miss USA, St. John supported the ban of transgender women from the Miss USA pageant as it “would infringe upon the pageant’s rights” (emphasis added). Using dehumanizing language, St. John has also supported banning transgender women and girls from teams that are consistent with their gender identity, misgendering them in her briefs. St. John’s message is clear: LGBTQ+ people don’t deserve the same respect or access to the same goods and services that non-LGBTQ+ people receive. Such conduct should be disqualifying for a seat on the federal courts.

St. John actively undermined racial justice, and filed briefs that argued against schools allowing race to factor into admissions considerations in Fair Admissions v. Harvard. She is also involved in litigation that attacked diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in National Association of Scholars v. United States Department of Energy et al and State of New York et al v. National Science Foundation et al.

For these reasons, we oppose Anna St. John’s nomination for a lifetime role on the federal judiciary. We also urge you to oppose her nomination. The public deserves a judge with a demonstrated record of fairness, equality, and respect for the law. Anna St. John’s career and conduct do not exhibit these qualities, and she is unfit and unqualified for this lifetime appointment.

Thank you for your consideration,

Alliance for Justice
American Atheists
Black Voters Matter Fund
Center for Justice & Democracy
Clearinghouse on Women’s Issues
Court Accountability Action
Equality California
Feminist Majority
Forum For Equality Louisiana
Human Rights Campaign
interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth
Just Solutions
Lambda Legal
League of Conservation Voters
Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center
National Association of Consumer Advocates
National Council of Jewish Women
National Employment Lawyers Association
National Women’s Law Center
National Women’s Political Caucus
Oasis Legal Services
People For the American Way
People’s Parity Project
Planned Parenthood Action Fund
Reproductive Freedom for All