WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Education today recommended removing the American Bar Association’s authority to accredit law schools, citing, among other issues, that the ABA’s accreditation committee is not independent of the professional organization.  

Zack Smith, senior legal fellow in the Heritage Foundation’s Legal Policy Center, made the following statement:

“This change is long overdue. Unfortunately, the ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has weaponized its accrediting authority to push a radical agenda on law schools across the country. There have been very real questions about whether the Council has maintained the required independence from the ABA.

“It shouldn’t be controversial to say that all students, faculty, and staff at law schools across the United States should be treated equally. That’s what the Constitution and our civil rights laws require. And yet, that equal treatment under the law is the conduct to which the Council and the ABA have objected. 

“If the ABA no longer functions as the sole federally recognized law school accreditor, other accreditors will be free to step in and focus on ensuring that students receive the best legal education possible instead of focusing on indoctrination as the Council and the ABA have done.”

Jonathan Butcher, acting director of Heritage’s Center for Education Policy, added the following:  

“The ABA has a list of left-leaning ideological positions that are evident in its accrediting wing and thus imposed on law schools. Specifically, the ABA’s support of racial preferences through DEI—even as the association claims to have suspended its DEI position statement—conflicts with civil rights laws.

“The ABA has also taken positions in favor of allowing men to access women’s private spaces, which puts women at risk. The ABA has pushed a specific ideology for decades, and the association’s work should be severed from any accrediting organization.”  

BACKGROUND: Last month, Zack Smith testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that the ABA had weaponized its accreditation authority to promote DEI policies that are contrary to federal civil rights law. Watch the full hearing here.