American Bar Association Repeals Law School DEI Rule Ahead of Accreditation Review

The American Bar Association has repealed its law school diversity, equity and inclusion requirement as the U.S. Department of Education considers ending its recognition as the national accreditor of law schools. Whether the repeal will be sufficient to preserve that recognition remains unclear.

The ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar approved the removal at a special meeting on Tuesday. The requirement covered law schools’ commitment to diversity across recruitment, admissions and student programming. It had been suspended in February 2025.

The Education Department recommended in August that the ABA lose the recognized accreditor status it has held since 1952. A department committee is scheduled to consider the recommendation on September 23, with a final decision expected in the coming months.

The department’s objections concerned both the council’s independence from the wider association and the time taken to revise the diversity requirement. It concluded that the council did not meet the required standard of separation from the parent organisation. The repeal changes the accreditation requirements but does not itself determine the outcome of the recognition process.

Council Chair Melissa Hart explained that the decision was intended to protect a national system of law school accreditation and did not represent a change in the organisation’s values. In a statement following the vote, she described repeal as necessary to retain recognition from the Education Department and a growing group of state courts.

Recognition at state level has also come under pressure. Texas, Florida and Alabama have moved to sideline the ABA in their lawyer licensing processes, while several other Republican-controlled states are considering similar steps. The council has sought to emphasise that it operates largely separately from the wider association.

Efforts to revise the requirement began after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision prohibiting race-based consideration in college admissions. Repeal concludes that nearly two-year process. The ABA moved from revision towards abolition as President Trump pursued an end to public- and private-sector DEI during his second term.

The Trump administration’s pressure on the ABA has extended beyond its diversity policies. Other points of conflict include the association’s criticism of administration officials’ attacks on judges and its lawsuits against the administration.

The September 23 committee meeting will consider the recommendation to withdraw federal recognition, with a final decision expected in the coming months. Law schools therefore face the removal of the diversity requirement while the ABA’s continued federal recognition remains undecided and further states consider changing its role in lawyer licensing.