The suspension of American Bar Association (ABA) accreditation Standard 206, originally titled “Diversity and Inclusion,” should be extended until August 31, 2026, according to a new memorandum issued by the Standards Committee of the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.
Addressed to the Section’s Council, the memo suggests monitoring “emergent developments.” Those include implications of several Executive Orders, including one taking aim at higher education accreditors and specifically referencing the council, as well as the ABA’s pending litigation against the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Council is recognized by the Department of Education as the sole accrediting body for U.S. law schools and is an independent arm of the ABA for that function. Most states require applicants of the State Bar to be graduates of an ABA-accredited law school.
In February, the council suspended enforcement of the contentious standard until August 31 of this year. That followed a January Executive Order mandating the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts and demands by the Department of Education that academic institutions eliminate DEI polices or risk federal funding cuts.
Those Executive Orders direct the Secretary of the Education Department to deny, suspend or terminate an accreditor’s recognition if they take into account a school’s diversity. The secretary must “realign” accreditation by requiring universities to use student outcome data without referring to demographic data, according to the new Executive Order. Additionally, the order demands universities to “prioritize intellectual diversity” among faculty.
You can read more about this issue here.
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