American Bar Association Panel Calls for End to DEI Requirement at Law Schools

The American Bar Association’s House of Delegates is set to review a proposal to eliminate its diversity, equity, and inclusion requirement for admissions, recruitment, and student programming at law schools after a committee of the organization voted Friday to nix the rule. New language proposed by the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar instead suggests that the association promote compliance with federal, state, and local anti-discrimination laws. The House of Delegates will consider the proposal in its August meeting and could revise it or vote on it then. If approved, the bar association’s House of Delegates would make official suspension of its DEI policy, halted last year after President Trump issued an executive order directing the Education Department to determine whether the association’s DEI requirement is illegal. The Education Department suggested the bar association could lose its status as the official accreditor of America’s law schools, a position it has held for decades. Last year, the acting secretary of education for civil rights, Craig Trainor, threatened to withhold federal funding for public universities that maintained DEI rules. That threat was clawed back just weeks later and a federal court in February ruled in favor of the National Education Association and others, which sued to prevent enforcement. However, facing potential loss of its accreditation authority, the ABA earlier this month agreed to extend its temporary suspension on DEI requirements until August. While several members of the ABA objected to the vote to end DEI requirements, one council member and a former dean of the University of Kentucky College of Law, David Brennen, told Reuters that the rule was effectively limiting intellectual diversity.“Even though I personally agree with (the diversity and inclusion standard) and what it tries to achieve, I think it’s appropriate as an accrediting body that we eliminate that standard so we don’t inhibit the diversity of ideas out there in various types of legal education environments,” Mr Brennen said. School accreditation gives the association the authority to determine eligibility of students to sit for the bar exam. Several states, including Texas, Florida, and Alabama have already moved to find alternatives to the ABA’s accreditation for bar eligibility, with other states considering similar moves. The Biden-appointed chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, Andrew Ferguson, in March reportedly complained to a conservative law association, the Federalist Society, that the ABA is “effectively” an arm of the Democratic Party, and as such is indoctrinating law students. Separately, he praised the states for opening the field to accrediting competitors. “The ABA’s law school accreditation cartel is starting to crumble. It never made much sense to grant an ‘elite’ group of practicing lawyers the power to limit entry into the legal profession. And it is unconscionable that law students pay higher tuition because of the high costs of the ABA accreditation process,” Mr. Ferguson posted in March. “As the ABA’s monopoly power over accreditation continues to evaporate, Americans of all stripes will benefit, especially those seeking greater access to more affordable legal services,” he added.Other opponents of DEI praised the ABA’s new direction. “Discrimination on the basis of race is wrong, unlawful, and unconstitutional. I am going to keep pushing for legislation that ensures the ABA can never implement these mandates again,” said Senator Jim Banks of Indiana.“The ABA’s DEI mandate helped turn law schools into ideological factories. America needs lawyers trained in law, logic, and the Constitution — not to manufacture activists for the grievance industry,” wrote Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri.Even as the bar association faces threats to its status, it continues to promote diversity in its own leadership and membership as one of the organization’s four key goals. The association’s center dedicated to DEI tracks demographic data among its member practices as part of what it says is its effort to enhance diversity and eliminate bias in the legal profession and the justice system.“Bias is real. We must confront it and seek solutions that will reduce and eliminate it,” the organization’s 2024-2025 president, William R. Bay, wrote in its annual diversity report.

American Bar Association Panel Calls for End to DEI Requirement at Law Schools

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