Exclusive: Watchdog Asks Ed Department To Block American Bar Association’s Renewal As Law Schools’ Sole Accreditor
- August 20, 2026
Breccan Thies, The Federalist
Opposition to the American Bar Association’s (ABA) “role as the federal government’s exclusive law school accreditor” is growing ahead of its September renewal hearing, as the left-wing organization’s history of pushing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and other ideologies make them unfit for such a powerful position.
In a Thursday letter obtained by The Federalist, government watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) urged the Department of Education’s National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) and Education Secretary Linda McMahon to reject the ABA’s renewal as the only recognized accreditor for America’s law schools.
“The ABA has a lengthy record of misusing its accreditation power to enforce ideological conformity, require discriminatory DEI policies, and engage in partisan and potentially anti-competitive conduct. It has proven itself completely unqualified to serve as a neutral gatekeeper to the legal profession,” PPT communications director Alexa Moutevelis told The Federalist. “The Department of Education should no longer allow this organization to strong-arm law schools into forcing racially discriminatory programming requirements and admissions standards. The freedom of our nation’s brightest young legal minds depends on it.”
McMahon will have the ultimate statutory authority to determine if the ABA continues to be a “reliable authority” to have accreditation powers.
The letter details the ABA’s many offenses related to DEI and other left-wing ideological goals, some of which it says are unlawfully discriminatory and are in direct contravention of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump to rein in accreditors’ institutional capture of American universities.