The American Bar Association Meets Accountability

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, the Department of Education released a new report addressing continued defiance of federal civil rights law by the American Bar Association’s Council. This action follows a formal request from the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) to the department to investigate the ABA Council’s compliance with federal recognition criteria.

“The ABA has abused its position as the Nation’s sole federally recognized accreditor for Juris Doctor programs by mandating unlawful racial discrimination under the guise of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion,’” said Chad Mizelle, Law and Justice Senior Fellow at AFPI. “It has had ample opportunity to remedy these practices. By refusing to do so, the ABA has created a conflict with federal civil rights law and our Nation’s fundamental commitments to equal treatment under law.”

As described by AFPI’s Chief Legal Affairs Officer, Leigh Ann O’Neill, “The problem for the ABA is that federal civil rights law is not a cafeteria menu. Recipients of federal funds cannot pick and choose which laws they comply with and which laws they ignore. By mandating divisive ideological indoctrination— which creates hostile learning environments—as a condition of accreditation, the ABA has effectively abdicated its Title IV gatekeeping responsibility. That is precisely why we wrote to the Department of Education in April, urging them to halt their recognition of the ABA as the sole JD program accreditor.”

When faced with a recent decision to drop DEI mandates for accrediting law schools, the ABA chose to keep them intact, further demonstrating their commitment to infusing race-essentialist dogma into American legal education. AFPI applauds the Department of Education for stepping in to defend the constitutional rights of our Nation’s students.