ABA Council Advocates for Removing 'Diversity' from Law School Policies

In recent events, the American Bar Association is poised to eliminate references to “race and ethnicity” from its law school diversity and inclusion rules to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling barring colleges from considering race in admissions. The ABA has sparked the debate by advocating for the removal of "diversity" in law school during admission and policies. 

They intended to broaden the definition of diversity earlier this year; it wasn't ideal, but at least they were using a colloquial term for the historically marginalised. According to a recent council plan, advocacy isn't given as much attention as it once was. The specifics of their proposed language change are available in the ABA Journal:

The council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has proposed reframing a contentious law school accreditation standard that encourages diversity to instead focus on achieving “access to legal education and the profession” for all qualified aspiring lawyers.

…

“We have never advocated for diversity for diversity’s sake. So we decided to focus on the underlying goal that we seek to promote, which is access to legal education,” [Carla] Pratt said. “It doesn’t mean we have to fling doors open. It requires affirmative steps, concrete actions.”

The advocacy of ABA in this would replace the current rule that law schools provide “full opportunities” for “racial and ethnic minorities” and have a diverse student body. In respect to gender, race and ethnicity. 

Republican attorneys general from 21 states in June told the ABA that the current diversity and inclusion standard runs afoul of the court’s ruling “by requiring explicitly illegal consideration of race.” Two weeks later, 19 Democratic attorneys general responded with their own letter defending the legality of the current standard.

The ABA was already planning to revise the standards when it got the duelling letters. But this new version was different, and it goes further than previous proposals by eliminating the references regarding race, ethnicity, gender and other biases. 

The ABA will be circulating this proposal for the public comments and may also approve it as early as possible (which can be in its November meeting). But the final change will need a final approval by the ABA’s House of Delegates which will be meeting in February. 

What are your thoughts on this? Do you think ABA should be eliminating diversity? Is it really necessary? Share your opinions in the comment section below. 

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