BUZZ
Conservatives point to American Bar Association’s DEI requirements, progressive politics
The American Bar Association, which for many years was the lone accreditor of law schools in the U.S., may lose that authority under the Trump administration.
Assistant Secretary of Education David Barker told the Wall Street Journal late last week that the Department of Education “is taking the first step toward removing the ABA’s authority to accredit law schools.” Accreditation is tied to federal funding, including student grants and loans.
Among other things, the Trump administration has a problem with the bar association’s requirement that law schools adhere to certain diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.
The DEI rule, Standard 206, is currently on hold, and the bar association has a vote scheduled for September on whether to permanently repeal it, Law.com reports.
However, conservatives continue to express concerns about the legal organization’s nearly exclusive power to accredit law schools coupled with its progressive politics.
“We have said many times that accreditation, in general, operates like a cartel,” Barker told the newspaper. “When there’s no competition, accreditors feel free to inject their own political preferences, their own ideologies into the work that they do.”
The Education Department’s actions are part of a larger report that claims the “ABA’s accreditation wing isn’t sufficiently independent of its profession,” the Wall Street Journal reports:
Melissa Hart, the chair of the ABA’s Accreditation Council, said the council is confident it complies with the federal laws and the Education Department’s requirements.
“As a national accrediting body for American law schools, we remain focused on ensuring quality legal education that produces competent, ethical attorneys who are eligible for licensure,” she said.
“The outcomes produced by Council-accredited law schools are unmatched, and we continue the important work of accrediting law schools as our recognition process proceeds,” Hart said.
Any final decision to reject the ABA is two steps and several months away; the outcome isn’t certain. The Education Department’s initial recommendation goes next to a panel that reviews accreditors, which then makes a recommendation to Undersecretary of Education Nicholas Kent.
The ABA suspended its DEI accreditation rule last year after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to “end illegal DEI discrimination.” The order specifically mentioned creating a plan to “deter” DEI programs in bar associations, The Fix reported.
However, concerns about the law group mixing politics with education requirements have not died.
Over the past year, a few Republican-led states have begun allowing judges to accredit law schools instead of the American Bar Association.
In January, the Supreme Court of Florida decided that its justices will determine the accreditation status of law schools in the state moving forward, The Fix reported at the time.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis celebrated the decision, writing on X, “The (highly partisan) ABA should not be a gatekeeper for legal education or the legal profession.”
Political concerns have been mounting for years.
Last year, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier accused the ABA of discriminating against a Catholic law school for its religious beliefs.
St. Thomas University College of Law was accused of noncompliance, in part, due to its religious views and could have lost its accreditation status; but the ABA later backtracked, The Fix reported in December.
What’s more, a few years ago, the ABA operated a discriminatory clerkship program open to minority students and “communities of color”; the ABA later revised the program to eliminate references to race, according to a 2024 Fix report.
In 2022, the bar association also considered adopting racial quotas for law school enrollment; however, the proposal did not pass, The Fix reported.
MORE: Scholars, experts keep pressure on ABA to end DEI accreditation rule for law schools
