The American Bar Association spent years defending diversity requirements for law schools. Then someone put its power on the table.
On Tuesday, the ABA Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar voted to repeal Standard 206, which required accredited law schools to demonstrate a commitment to diversity in recruitment, admissions, faculty hiring, and other areas.
The timing deserves attention. The Department of Education recommended last month that the council lose federal recognition as the accreditor of American law schools.
From Reuters:
The American Bar Association on Tuesday officially eliminated its diversity, equity and inclusion requirement for law schools, but it’s unclear whether it will be enough to save the organization’s longtime status as the federal government’s recognized accreditor of U.S. law schools.
The ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar—the wing of the national attorney membership organization that oversees law schools—voted during a special meeting to remove a requirement that law schools demonstrate their commitment to diversity in recruitment, admissions, and student programming.
Council Chair Melissa Hart said during the virtual meeting that the vote was not a reflection of the organization’s values, but a “pragmatic” choice intended to preserve a national system of law school accreditation.
In a statement after the vote, Hart said repealing the rule was "necessary to preserve recognition by a growing number of state courts" and the U.S. Department of Education.
The ABA council has enjoyed federal recognition for law school accreditation since 1952. That position carries enormous influence over legal education. The Education Department now questions whether the council is sufficiently separate and independent from the larger ABA, while also faulting its handling of the diversity requirement.
A federal advisory committee is scheduled to consider the council's recognition on Sept. 23.
From the U.S. Department of Education:
The following accrediting agencies are recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education as reliable authorities concerning the quality of education or training offered by the institutions of higher education or higher education programs they accredit.
Listing and Review Dates
- 1952/2021/S2026
Scope of Recognition
- The accreditation of programs in legal education that lead to the first professional degree in law, including those offered via distance education, as well as freestanding law schools offering such programs.
Geographic Area of Accrediting Activities
- Throughout the United States.
Title IV
- Only freestanding law schools may use accreditation by this agency to establish eligibility to participate in Title IV programs.
Suddenly, Standard 206 is gone.
Council Chair Melissa Hart didn't portray Tuesday's decision as some philosophical conversion. She called the repeal a pragmatic choice and said it was necessary to preserve recognition from state courts and the federal government.
That admission is far more revealing than another argument over the meaning of DEI.
The broader ABA hasn't abandoned its diversity agenda. Its leadership continues to defend efforts aimed at DEI. The accrediting council simply discovered a limit to how much ideological baggage it could carry once the government began questioning why the organization possessed so much gatekeeping authority.
Texas, Florida, and Alabama have already taken steps to reduce the ABA's influence over lawyer licensing. Other Republican-led states are considering similar action.
From Reuters:
The repeal ends a nearly two-year effort to revise the ABA rule following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling barring colleges from considering race in admissions. The ABA later began a push to eliminate the rule altogether as Republican President Trump sought to end DEI in the public and private sectors during his second term.
The ABA’s law school diversity rule was suspended in February 2025, just weeks after Trump returned to the White House.
The ABA has been facing unprecedented pressure from the Trump administration over the organization’s diversity efforts, its criticism of administration officials’ attacks on judges, and its various lawsuits against the administration. Republican-controlled state supreme courts have also taken steps to limit the ABA's role in accreditation.
Texas, Florida and Alabama have each moved to sideline the ABA in their lawyer licensing processes in recent months, and several other Republican-controlled states are weighing similar moves.
The law school council has sought to highlight that it primarily operates separately from the larger ABA—which a White House spokesperson in March of 2025 called a “snooty” organization of “leftist lawyers”—to little avail thus far.
Conservatives should remember how the change happened.
For years, Republican politicians became experts at issuing stern statements about ideological capture in universities, corporations, professional organizations, and government agencies. Institutions learned they could absorb the criticism because criticism carried little cost.
President Donald Trump's administration changed the calculation.
The administration challenged the federal recognition supporting the ABA council's extraordinary position in legal education. States challenged its role in their licensing systems. Once institutional power faced consequences, a requirement that survived years of controversy disappeared.
No conversion was necessary: incentives did the work.
The lesson reaches far beyond one diversity rule.
Private organizations are free to embrace political causes. They can issue statements, promote ideological programs, and lecture the country to their hearts' content.
But when an organization also exercises government-recognized authority capable of shaping an entire profession, Americans have every right to examine whether that power still deserves government support.
The ABA council made its choice when the cost became real.
Standard 206 lost.
Its accrediting power lived to fight another day, at least until Sept. 23.
PJ Media VIP keeps digging into the institutions shaping American life long after everyone else moves to the next headline. Join today and save 60% with promo code FIGHT.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member