WASHINGTON, D.C. — For generations, the American Bar Association (ABA) has held enormous influence over the nation’s law schools and the future lawyers who graduate from them. Now, the Trump administration is challenging the status quo by breaking up this monopoly.
Today, the U.S. Department of Education takes the first formal step toward removing the ABA’s federal recognition as a law school accreditor, according to an exclusive report from The Wall Street Journal. In a lengthy report, the Department of Education raises concerns about whether the ABA’s accreditation arm operates independently enough from the broader organization and whether political priorities have influenced a process that should be focused on pure educational quality. This move will allow new, nimble accreditors to both increase the quality of legal education and decrease its costs.
Independent Women applauds the move as a monumental step to restore common sense back to our judicial system and remove ABA’s influence promoting radical, discriminatory DEI policies and ideological indoctrination on every future lawyer and judge.
May Mailman, director of Independent Women’s Law Center said, “This will be one of the most meaningful changes to open doors for Americans and steer legal culture toward justice, not radical indoctrination. The American Bar Association is a left-wing advocacy group, filing 80% of its amicus briefs for liberal arguments and 0% for conservative. It uses its monopoly on recognizing which law schools are ‘accredited’ (get student loans) to force DEI hiring, recruitment, and inflate the cost of education.”
Inez Stepman, Independent Women senior legal and policy analyst, said, “The ABA is just another formerly neutral institution to become nakedly ideological over the years, like many universities, newsrooms, and medical associations. By beginning this process, the Trump administration is asking necessary questions about whether the special status the ABA enjoys as a law school accreditor has been abused to push their radical and discriminatory DEI positions – positions now flatly rejected by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional – or other ideological views on the law schools and students reliant on them to be professional.”
PROMISES MADE. PROMISES KEPT.
This action follows other moves the administration has made to cut special privileges the ABA has abused, such as access to private judicial nominee information. And it is a step towards fulfilling one of Donald Trump’s campaign promises to voters: to break the cartel of university accreditors, introducing new options for schools that do not force feed far-left ideology into what should instead be an accreditation process that ensures academic and professional excellence.
The process will take a period of months. If the ABA loses recognition, university-affiliated schools can shift to their university’s accreditor. A small handful of free-standing law schools will seek accreditation from another entity. The days of one progressive organization holding the keys to the entire legal profession are numbered.
Presently, the ABA accredits nearly 200 law schools nationwide. That designation carries significant weight as accreditation can affect access to federal student aid, and in most states, students generally must graduate from an ABA-approved law school to take the bar exam.
Accreditation should be about educational excellence, student outcomes, and preparing competent attorneys, not advancing ideological priorities.
America’s future lawyers and judges deserve a system focused first and foremost on providing them with an excellent legal education.
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