Trump administration may end ABA’s control over America’s law schools

“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,” reports The College Fix.

Assistant Secretary of Education David Barker said last week that the Education Department “is taking the first step toward removing the ABA’s authority to accredit law schools.” Accreditation is a requirement for federal funding, including student grants and loans.

The College Fix reports that “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,” which it views as racially discriminatory. That requirement is found in Standard 206, which is “currently on hold” pending a vote next month on whether to repeal it.

Last year, a civil-rights complaint was filed against the American Bar Association over its multiple race-based scholarships.

Conservatives object to the ABA’s nearly exclusive power to accredit law schools, given its progressive politics and conflicts of interest. The ABA has routinely filed court briefs in Supreme Court cases urging it to uphold policies that were allegedly unconstitutional, such as race-based affirmative action. It has also urged federal appeals courts to uphold restrictions on lawyers’ speech that conservative groups argued were unconstitutional.

“We have said many times that accreditation, in general, operates like a cartel,” said Assistant Secretary Barker. “When there’s no competition, accreditors feel free to inject their own political preferences, their own ideologies into the work that they do.”

The “ABA’s accreditation wing isn’t sufficiently independent of its profession,” many observers say.

The College Fix adds that

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.

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.

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.”

Last year, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier accused the ABA of discriminating against a Catholic law school for its religious beliefs.