Law School Applicant Pool Is Most Diverse Ever Amid Affirmative Action Ban

The U.S. Supreme Court’s June ban on affirmative action in college admissions so far has not led to a decline in minority law school applicants, as some legal academics feared.

The current national law school applicant pool includes more than 43% people of color — the highest percentage on record, according to the latest data from the Law School Admission Council. The number of minority applicants has also grown, increasing nearly 7% compared with this time last year, the data show.

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It remains to be seen whether a historically diverse applicant pool yields a more racially diverse class this fall, said Aaron Taylor, executive director of the AccessLex Center for Legal Education Excellence, which advocates for affordability and access to law school.

“If we see higher denial rates among applicants of color after the current admission cycle, we may then see future declines in applications from members of those groups,” he said {snip}

The current crop of first-year law students is the most diverse on record, comprising 40% people of color — up from 39% in 2022. This year’s first-year law students were the final class admitted before the affirmative action ruling.