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The American Bar Association (ABA), which accredits nearly 200 law schools nationwide, has temporarily halted enforcement of its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) requirements while reviewing a proposal to update its rules.
The paused ABA regulations required law schools to demonstrate their commitment to diversity in recruitment, admissions, and programming, with failure to do so resulting in disciplinary actions or even loss of accreditation.
The ABA has been reviewing its DEI policy ever since the Supreme Court issued an anti-affirmative action ruling in 2023 prohibiting considering race in college admissions. However, the ABA Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar recently announced that it would be assessing the proposed modifications to its DEI rule to ensure that the modifications also comply with Trump’s DEI crackdown, though many of Trump’s anti-DEI measures are currently blocked by a judge.
“The committee’s view is that with the executive orders and the law being in flux, it would be an extreme hardship for law schools if our standards were to require them to do certain things that may cause them to take more litigation risks and potentially violate the law,” said Daniel Thies, chair-elect of the council and co-chair of the ABA’s Strategic Review Committee.
Just this month, ABA president William R. Bay released a strong statement in support of “the rule of law,” seemingly in protest of Trump’s anti-DEI measures, which the statement characterizes as “attempts to criminalize those who support lawful programs to eliminate bias and enhance diversity.”
“We urge every attorney to join us and insist that our government, a government of the people, follow the law. It is part of the oath we took when we became lawyers. Whatever your political party or your views, change must be made in the right way. Americans expect no less,” the statement says.
Critics have noted that this statement may be undercut by the ABA’s decision to suspend enforcement of its own DEI requirements in response to Trump’s anti-DEI executive order.
“The ABA is an incredibly conservative organization,” Z Williams, director of client support and operations at the Denver-based nonprofit Bread and Roses Legal Center, told Truthout. “I’m unsurprised that the ABA jumped at the chance to roll back protections for students.”
In a “Dear Colleague” letter earlier this month, the Department of Education — an agency the Trump administration plans to dissolve — instructed institutions to avoid using race as a criterion in admissions, financial aid, hiring, or other decisions or else face federal funding cuts. In response, several law schools, including Cornell Law School, Vanderbilt Law School, and the University of Virginia School of Law, removed the term “diversity” from their community webpages, and Antonin Scalia Law School eliminated its diversity page entirely. The ABA’s freeze on DEI requirements ensures that these universities will not face disciplinary action for the changes.
The council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar also recently announced that it will be evaluating its Standard 205 policy, titled “Non‐Discrimination and Equality of Opportunity,” which requires that “[a] law school shall foster and maintain equality of opportunity for students, faculty, and staff, without discrimination or segregation on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, or disability.”
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