The American Bar Association has scrapped its diversity, equity and inclusion requirement for U.S. law schools, a move aimed at protecting the organization’s role as the nation’s recognized accreditor amid mounting pressure from the federal government and Republican-led states.
The ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar approved the repeal during a special meeting. The rule had required law schools to demonstrate efforts to promote diversity in recruitment, admissions and student programming.
Council Chair Melissa Hart described the decision as a pragmatic step rather than a change in the organization’s underlying values. She said retaining national accreditation was a key consideration behind the move.
The decision comes at a critical moment for the ABA. The U.S. Department of Education recommended in August that the organization lose its federally recognized accreditation role, which it has held since 1952. The department questioned whether the law school council operates with sufficient independence from the wider ABA and also criticized the organization for taking too long to eliminate the diversity requirement.
A federal education committee is expected to examine that recommendation on September 23. A final decision on the ABA’s accreditation status is expected in the months that follow.
The repeal also brings an end to a lengthy effort to overhaul the diversity standard. The ABA began reconsidering the requirement after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that colleges could not use race as a factor in admissions. The issue gained further urgency after President Donald Trump returned to office and his administration intensified efforts to roll back DEI programs across public and private institutions.
The ABA had already suspended enforcement of its law school diversity standard in February 2025.
Meanwhile, pressure has been building at the state level. Texas, Florida and Alabama have taken steps to reduce the ABA’s role in their lawyer licensing systems, while other Republican-led states are considering similar measures.
The ABA’s law school council has repeatedly stressed that it functions largely independently of the broader association. That argument, however, has so far done little to ease concerns surrounding the organization’s accreditation authority.
With the DEI requirement now formally gone, the ABA faces a larger question: whether the change will be enough to preserve its decades-old position at the center of U.S. legal education accreditation.
