‘Woke ideology forced on the nation’: Trump launches broadside against American Bar Association’s accreditation monopoly

The American Bar Association, which for now has been the only “federally recognized accreditor for Juris Doctor programs,” through its Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, soon may be losing a huge amount of its influence on American lawyers.

Because others may be able to offer law schools accreditation.

The move would be a massive blow to the significance of the ABA, which has positioned itself as an extreme leftist in American society in recent years.

An analysis recently called it a “proxy for the left wing of the American legal community,” and it said the ABA has been using its power as a monopoly “to promote an ideological agenda.”

The change is being done through an Executive Order from President Donald Trump.

That order said, “The American Bar Association’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar (Council), which is the sole federally recognized accreditor for Juris Doctor programs, has required law schools to ‘demonstrate by concrete action a commitment to diversity and inclusion’ including by ‘commit[ting] to having a student body [and faculty] that is diverse with respect to gender, race, and ethnicity.’ As the Attorney General has concluded and informed the Council, the discriminatory requirement blatantly violates the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 600 U.S. 181 (2023). Though the Council subsequently suspended its enforcement while it considers proposed revisions, this standard and similar unlawful mandates must be permanently eradicated.”

The order continued, “American students and taxpayers deserve better, and my Administration will reform our dysfunctional accreditation system so that colleges and universities focus on delivering high-quality academic programs at a reasonable price. Federal recognition will not be provided to accreditors engaging in unlawful discrimination in violation of Federal law.

“The Attorney General and the Secretary of Education shall, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, investigate and take appropriate action to terminate unlawful discrimination by American law schools that is advanced by the Council, including unlawful ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ requirements under the guise of accreditation standards. The Secretary of Education shall also assess whether to suspend or terminate the Council’s status as an accrediting agency under Federal law.”

While Trump’s order addressed the issue of accreditation generally, where accreditors “have … abused their enormous authority,” it was the ABA that was singled out for special mention.

The order gave power to the secretary of Education to “hold accountable, including through denial, monitoring, suspension, or termination of accreditation recognition, accreditors who fail to meet the applicable recognition criteria or otherwise violate Federal law, including by requiring institutions seeking accreditation to engage in unlawful discrimination in accreditation-related activity under the guise of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ initiatives.”

The secretary, along with the attorney general, shall investigate and “take appropriate action to terminate unlawful discrimination by American law schools that is advanced by the Council, including unlawful ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ requirements under the guise of accreditation standards.”

In fact, the ABA could be canceled entirely as an accrediting agency.

The order also banned accreditors from “engaging in practices that result in credential inflation that burdens students with additional unnecessary costs.”

A commentary at Legal Insurrection had just warned that the ABA was preparing to “mandate race-focused study as a prerequisite to graduating from law school. It’s another instance of woke ideology being forced on the nation, and may necessitate that states revisit the ABA’s government-granted near-monopoly accrediting power.”