Inside Higher Ed, Law School Accreditor Rewriting Diversity and Inclusion Standard:
The independent accrediting arm of the American Bar Association is in the process of rewriting its diversity and equity standard. The move comes in response to last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling race-conscious college admissions policies unconstitutional.
When the standards committee of the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, which is the sole accrediting body for all U.S. law schools, issued the proposed revisions in a memo back in February, it struck out the words “diversity and inclusion” related to admissions and hiring and replaced them with “access,” among other changes to the standard, which was adopted years before the federal affirmative action ban.
However, that doesn’t mean the accreditor has abandoned its commitment to recruiting students and faculty reflective of the diverse population lawyers serve, it says.
The February memo states that “the revisions make clear that a law school must demonstrate by concrete actions a commitment to access to all persons, including those with identity characteristics that have led to disadvantages in or exclusion from the legal profession,” including on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, religion, national origin, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, military status, Native American tribal citizenship or socioeconomic background.
An interpretation the council provided of the proposed standard notes that the standard doesn’t specify how a law school must satisfy those requirements but instead says evaluation would be “based on the totality of the law school’s actions.”
Jennifer Rosato Perea, managing director of accreditation and legal education for the ABA, said the council is now considering the revisions “with the intent to adopt recommendations at its August meeting.”
In the interim, 19 attorneys general from Democratic-led states—and at least one independent legal expert Inside Higher Ed interviewed—said the proposed standards appear to comply with the high court’s decision; the narrow ruling doesn’t apply to hiring practices and doesn’t bar higher education institutions from generally seeking a diverse applicant pool.
Nonetheless, the proposed revisions have generated pushback from a coalition of top Republican lawyers, including those who have previously supported a push to dismantle broader diversity, equity and inclusion structures across all levels of higher education.
Earlier this month, Tennessee attorney general Jonathan Skrmetti wrote a letter endorsed by 20 other attorneys general from Republican-led states, including Florida, Texas and Virginia, to the accreditor. It argued that the proposed revisions are out of compliance with the Supreme Court’s decision and made a point to “re-emphasize” the existing standard’s “problematic requirement that law schools engage in race-based admissions and hiring.” …
The Supreme Court’s affirmative action ban may require law schools to change their approach, but it still leaves room to recruit diverse students and faculty.
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