Law school diversity standard could be axed this month, despite House of Delegates opposition
The council for the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar could vote as soon as this month to eliminate the contentious law school accreditation standard focused on diversity and inclusion, despite opposition to the move this week from the ABA House of Delegates.
After about two hours of debate, the House on Tuesday voted against repealing Standard 206—instead sending the matter back to the council for further consideration.
But minutes later, the House approved another resolution which essentially gave the council free rein to decide the fate of Standard 206 on its own. The adopted resolution cuts the number of times the council must send any proposed rule changes to the House for feedback from twice to once.
The second resolution, which underscores the council’s independence from the ABA, means the council is now free to discuss—and potentially vote to repeal—Standard 206 without going through the House. That could happen as soon as its next full meeting, Daniel Thies, immediate past council chair, said in a statement to the ABA Journal. The council’s next meeting is scheduled for Aug. 21.
“The council makes the ultimate decision on any changes to accreditation standards and processes,” he added. “The House of Delegates’ decision highlights the separate and independent nature of the council’s relationship to the ABA.”
Law schools need accreditation by a nationally recognized body for their students to receive financial aid, and most states require bar candidates to have graduated from an ABA-accredited school.
These decisions come at a critical moment, as the council, the sole national accreditor for law schools, faces a five-year review of its accreditation status by the U.S. Department of Education just as its powers are questioned by individual states.
As part of the Education Department’s review process, Thies is scheduled to appear before the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, or NACIQI, in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 23 and 24—adding extra time pressure for the House to decide on the issue at the ABA Annual Conference, which wrapped up this week.
At the Tuesday meeting of the House, Patricia Salkin, provost and professor at Tuoro Law, told the delegates, “we have a crisis because the chair has to appear next month,” adding that if Standard 206 were in force at that time, the council would surely lose its accreditor status.
Joseph K. West, partner at Duane Morris, noted that “repealing Standing 206 does not affect law schools’ abilities to engage with diversity, equity and inclusion in ways they choose consistent with applicable law,” and the need for a national accreditor allows law students to sit for the bar in many other states.
But other speakers saw condoning the repeal as a step backward for DEI.
“I want everybody in this room to do what’s right. You must fight for justice. You must fight for diversity, equity and inclusion, and do not be intimidated,” Terrence J. Evans, president of the California Lawyers Association, said ahead of the vote. “They can’t take all of us down. Together, we are stronger than any force that works against us.”
The House then voted down the resolution to concur with the Council’s decision to repeal the diversity and inclusion standard.
As the date for the council’s appearance before the accrediting board approaches, members are carefully watching the Education Department’s responses to other accreditors now under review. On May 8, the council’s standards committee memo cited recent communications from the education department to other higher education accreditors that expect them to abolish—not merely suspend—DEI standards.
The Education Department’s March 16 letters to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education “indicated that any application of racial diversity standards would be viewed by the department as a violation of federal law.”
These letters “must inform the council’s decision making,” the memo adds.
The debate on Standard 206 got hot after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to strike down race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard University and University of North Carolina. Some states have struck down DEI requirements.
In April 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to assess whether to suspend or terminate the council as the government’s official law school accreditor, citing its “unlawful ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ requirements,” as part of an executive order focused on reforming higher education accreditation.
To prevent law schools from choosing between following the court’s ruling or meeting the council’s accreditation standards, the council voted in February 2025 to suspend Standard 206, which required law schools “demonstrate by concrete action a commitment to diversity and inclusion by providing full opportunities for the study of law and entry into the profession by members of underrepresented groups” and “having a faculty and staff that are diverse with respect to gender, race and ethnicity.”
Meanwhile, the ABA council faces other sources of pressure as its exclusive accreditor status is changing. Since early this year, the supreme courts of the Republican-leaning states of Alabama, Texas and Florida made moves to break ties with the council. Other state supreme courts, including Ohio, currently are reevaluating ABA accreditation.
In its efforts to retain accreditation status, the council has made other moves this year to declare its independence. In January, the council set up a new unit focused on law school oversight to underscore that it operates separately from the ABA, a target of criticism from the Trump administration on a host of issues.
If that impacts the council’s chances of retaining accreditor status with the Department of Education remains to be seen.
“I’m not going to venture a guess on how that will turn out,” Thies told the Journal.
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