American Bar Association Votes to Eliminate DEI Rule for Law Schools

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The American Bar Association council that oversees law school accreditation voted on Friday to eliminate a ​rule that requires law schools to demonstrate their commitment to diversity in recruitment, admissions, and student programming.

The ‌rule has been suspended since February 2025, after Republican President Donald Trump returned to the White House and began cracking down on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

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The change would not become final until the ABA’s House of Delegates begins ​to consider it as early as August and then debates revisions. That approval process could push the diversity rule’s elimination to sometime ​in 2027.

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Trump in April 2025 signed ​an executive order directing U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon to assess whether to suspend or terminate the ABA as the government’s official law school ‌accreditor, citing ⁠its “unlawful ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ requirements,” as part of an executive order focused on reforming higher education accreditation.

Texas, Florida and Alabama have each moved to sideline the ABA in their lawyer licensing processes in recent months, and several other Republican-controlled states are weighing similar moves.

The ABA received a raft of public comments asking it to retain or strengthen the diversity and inclusion rule — mostly from legal educators — ​but a key committee recommended it ​be eliminated in order ⁠to retain the organization’s status as the federally recognized accreditor of law schools.

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