() – The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) is recommending that the American Bar Association (ABA), the largest association of legal professionals in the United States, be stripped of its oversight authority over law schools, given the organization’s left-wing bias.
Politico reports that education officials have recommended the ABA’s power to give accreditation, which comes with not only a stamp of legitimacy but also eligibility for federal aid, not be renewed when it comes up for renewal next month. The ABA has enjoyed accreditation power since 1952. Earlier this year, the DOE advanced a proposed regulation to, among other things, require that professional training accreditors and professional trade associations be separate entities.
The DOE is not publicly commenting on deliberations so far, but ABA Accreditation Council chair Melissa Hart downplayed the news as a routine “step in the regular recognition process.” Following a hearing, she said, “we’re confident the Council will address any concerns the Department may have at that hearing.”
Under administration pressure, the ABA voted in May to eliminate Standard 206, a rule that leaned on law schools to commit to Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in their hiring practices, admissions policies, and more.
But the ABA has not abandoned its commitment to woke ideology entirely. Its website still touts the organization’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Center, which is tasked with advancing “ABA Goal III–to eliminate bias and enhance diversity in our Association, legal profession, and justice system.”
Conservatives argue the change is long overdue.
“So what has the ABA done with this impressive accumulation of power and prestige?” Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) asked last month. “Unfortunately, it appears that the ABA — ideologically captured by radical leftists — has continuously pursued discriminatory DEI practices. This included requiring law schools to consider race as a factor for admissions, and to evaluate racial discrimination over merit in order to diversify the profession.”
Cornell Law School Professor William Jacobson, proprietor of the conservative Legal Insurrection blog, has long advocated stripping the ABA’s accreditation power. A 2022 op-ed he co-authored called out the organization at the time for preparing to “mandate race-focused study as a prerequisite to graduating from law school,” further proof it was “using its power to promote an ideological agenda.”
“That may explain why ABA membership dropped from 300,000 (over 50% of the bar) in 1980 to 194,000 (14.4%) in 2017. ABA may once have been a proxy for the American legal community, but now it’s just a proxy for the left wing of the American legal community. Yet its accrediting power continues,” he and co-author Johanna Markind wrote. “Whatever the reform approach, action is needed. States enabled the ABA’s near-monopoly accrediting power, which now is being abused for ideological purposes. What the states gave the ABA, the states can and should take away.”
