Trump Administration challenges ABA law school accreditation monopoly

The Trump Administration is moving to challenge the American Bar Association (ABA) regarding its near-monopoly on accrediting law schools. The Education Department has raised concerns that the ABA's accreditation process may not be sufficiently independent from the professional guild itself.

Central to the scrutiny is the ABA's previous requirement for law schools to demonstrate “concrete” efforts toward diversity and inclusion. This follows recent legal challenges, including a Justice Department accusation against Duke Law School for alleged illegal race-based discrimination in admissions. Critics argue that the ABA's standards may have encouraged or provided cover for practices that conflict with current legal interpretations of nondiscrimination.

Additional criticisms focus on the ABA's failure to police institutional policies that may violate academic freedom or create hostile environments. Specific allegations have been made regarding the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law, where faculty adopted policies involving boycotts and divestments that critics claim targeted specific groups and institutionalized academic boycotts.