ABA law school accreditation should end, Texas justices say
The Texas Supreme Court on Friday tentatively approved minimizing or possibly eliminating the role of the council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar in accrediting the state’s law schools, moving those powers to the court itself.
“The court is of the tentative opinion that the ABA should no longer have the final say on whether a law school’s graduates are eligible to sit for the Texas bar exam and become licensed to practice law in Texas,” the order states.
Comments on the court’s proposal will be accepted through Dec. 1, and the rule change is expected to become effective Jan. 1, 2026, it states.
Most states require applicants to the state bar to be graduates of an ABA-accredited law school. Texas’ current rules require graduation from an ABA-approved law school to sit for the bar, with some exceptions, according to court documents.
The ABA council, a separate and independent entity from the bar association, is recognized by the Department of Education as the sole accrediting body for U.S. law schools. It has served as Texas’ sole accreditor since 1983. There are 10 ABA approved law schools in Texas.
Republican-led Florida, Tennessee and Ohio currently also are examining ABA accreditation. These moves follow the Trump administration’s action taking aim at higher education accreditors—specifically referencing the council—mandating the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts or risk federal funding cuts. The council suspended Standard 206, focused on DEI, until Aug. 31, 2026.
Some law school administrators have questioned how the degrees could remain portable if individual states install their own accreditors and different standards are held in various jurisdictions.
But the Texas Supreme Court “intends to preserve the portability of Texas law-school degrees into other states and to preserve the portability of out-of-state law-school degrees into Texas,” the order says.
The order states that the court “does not intend to impose additional accreditation, compliance or administrative burdens on currently approved law schools, which need not take any additional action in order to remain approved law schools in Texas.”
Law schools that are now approved by the ABA expect the court’s oversight to “provide stability, certainty and flexibility” that require schools meet “a set of simple, objective and ideologically neutral criteria (such as bar exam passage rate) using metrics no more onerous than those currently required by the ABA.”
Jennifer Rosato Perea, ABA managing director for accreditation and legal education, said the council is currently reviewing the implications of the order and will provide comments to the Texas Supreme Court, in an email to the ABA Journal.
“We look forward to continuing to work with Texas and other states to ensure that a national accreditation system exists that promotes quality, efficiency and flexibility while maintaining law degree portability across state lines, to the benefit of students, employers, law schools and the states themselves,” she writes.
Last week’s move follows the Texas Supreme Court’s call for comments in April regarding its review of ABA accreditation rules. In July, deans from eight Texas law schools wrote a letter opposing the end of Texas’ requirement that bar exam takers graduate from an ABA-accredited law school.
“Removing the ABA accreditation recognized by every other state will impair the ability of Texas law graduates to secure employment outside of Texas, lower Texas law schools’ overall employment rates and harm Texas law schools’ national reputations,” states the deans’ July letter. It adds that Texas law schools will struggle to attract high-caliber students, ultimately harming those law schools’ reputations.”
Leaders of the Association of American Law Schools, the Law School Admission Council, the AccessLex Institute and the National Association for Law Placement also sent statements of opposition.
According to the National Association of Legal Placement’s 2023 data of Texas Entry-Level Law Graduate Employment, 88% of Texas law school graduates who reported their job location remained in Texas; 12% did not.
On Monday, University of Houston Law Center Dean Leonard M. Baynes wrote to the ABA Journal that “the written order leaves us in the dark as to why the court came to this decision; nor do we know how these changes will work out,” he writes. “But we remain committed to work with the court to ensure that Texas retains the high quality of legal education that it is known for throughout the nation.”
Texas tests the third largest number of bar candidates, according to National Conference of Bar Examiner statistics.
See also:
Deans, law school associations oppose Texas proposal to end ABA accreditation
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