Unblinding Lady Justice

Alexa Moutevelis, Lyceum

The American Bar Association’s (ABA) political activism when it comes to bias against conservative judges and support for left-wing causes has long been established. What is less well known is the enormous power the ABA has wielded over the legal education system as the nation’s sole law school accreditor for almost 75 years.

Now the Trump administration has a chance to end that monopoly when the ABA’s accreditation authority comes up for renewal at the end of September.

Without accreditation, a law school’s students can lose access to federal financial aid and, in many states, their ability to sit for the bar exam. The ABA has a lengthy track record of abusing its accreditation power to strong-arm law schools into discriminatory programing and admissions standards.

For example, the ABA’s accreditation Standard 206 “Diversity and Inclusion Requirement” forced law schools to “demonstrate by concrete action a commitment to diversity and inclusion” in admissions and hiring.

The discriminatory requirement blatantly violated the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions. But it was not until Sept. 8 of this year, with its accreditation recognition on the line, that the ABA officially voted to remove Standard 206.

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