EDITORS' CORNER
The American Bar Association is one step closer to permanently repealing a curriculum standard that requires law schools to embed diversity, equity and inclusion into their courses — but some question whether DEI will actually be fully removed in the end.
The association in 2025 suspended its DEI accreditation rule, called Standard 206, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to “end illegal DEI discrimination” — which included a clause that the attorney general formulate a plan to “deter” DEI programs in bar associations.
On Friday, the ABA’s standards committee in a memo called for Standard 206 to be permanently repealed.
“Citing recent communications from the U.S. Department of Education officials to other higher education accreditors that expect them to abolish—not merely suspend—diversity and inclusion standards, the memo stated that the council’s status as the sole national accreditor of law schools ‘would be imminently threatened’ if the standard isn’t scrapped,” the ABA Journal reported.
In fact, citing DEI concerns, Texas and Florida earlier this year ended the American Bar Association’s role as the only accreditor of law schools in their states. More recently, Alabama joined the list, and Tennessee may follow suit.
Friday’s decision also came in the wake of a report from a conservative education watchdog group published in April that found dozens of law schools across America still require diversity, equity and inclusion coursework or programming to graduate despite the suspension of Standard 206 one year ago.
Defending Education found that of the nearly 200 law schools accredited by the ABA, “62 appear to still require students to complete DEI-related coursework or programming in order to graduate.” “In addition, 72 law schools appear to maintain DEI offices—or rebranded versions of them—that remain in operation.”
Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president and senior legal fellow at Defending Education, said in a statement Friday she is skeptical the ABA truly will abolish DEI mandates.
“Even though the American Bar Association gave lip service to following the law by suspending standard 206, which was nothing short of an unconstitutional quota, the light appears to be breaking. Now, the ABA has indicated a willingness to eliminate the standard altogether,” she stated.
“Knowing the organization’s political leanings, it’s aggressively anti-conservative bias, and it’s consistent enforcement of required ‘racial sensitivity training’ in law schools, however, I’ll believe it when I see it,” she added.
Gov. Jim Pillen of Nebraska also voiced concern, pointing out that although the association voted to eliminate Standard 206, what remains is Standard 303, which tasks law schools with providing education to law students on bias and cross-cultural competency.
“Nebraskans expect—and I demand—that the law school will immediately clear out of its coursework, publications, curricula, and catalogs ALL ‘cross-cultural competence’ and related material implemented as a result of these now-obsolete (and always misguided) ABA rule,” he wrote in a post on X.
Red State reported the ABA council also voted Friday to also seek public comment on eliminating Standard 303 and other rules on cultural competency and non-discrimination requirements.
MORE: Dozens of law schools still require DEI to graduate, watchdog group finds
