An Education Department staff report recommended that an independent body with historic ties to the American Bar Association be stripped of its ability to accredit law schools, a spokesperson for the federal agency confirmed Friday.
The report, which was released just a month before the powers given to the ABA’s accreditation council are set to come up for review, comes after President Donald Trump and other leading conservatives criticized the ABA as “woke” and took issue with its past embrace of certain policies they decried as “diversity, equity and inclusion.” The ABA has also clashed with the White House over the federal government’s targeting of law firms and attorneys after Trump returned to office last year.
The ABA consists of two separate, but technically independent, branches that serve as an accreditation body and a professional membership group for attorneys. The accreditation council, which has accredited law schools since 1952, has maintained that its operations, office space, budget, membership and policies are separate from the ABA.
But the administration has taken issue with the accreditation council’s ties to the ABA, with Education Department staff arguing that the group is “out of compliance with the agency’s accreditation regulations and recognition standards” because it had not sufficiently proved it is “separate and independent” from the ABA.
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A spokesperson for the Education Department said the agency could not comment further on the process to remove the council’s accreditation power because it is “ongoing and involves multiple stages of review, including by an independent, bipartisan advisory committee in September.”
David Barker, assistant education secretary, told The Wall Street Journal that the agency has maintained that “accreditation, in general, operates like a cartel.” The accreditation council is the sole national accreditor for law schools.
“When there’s no competition, accreditors feel free to inject their own political preferences, their own ideologies into the work they do,” Barker said.
Melissa Hart, chair of the accreditation council, said in a statement that the group was confident it met federal requirements for accreditors. She said the council looked forward to addressing “any misconceptions and clarify the record” before a meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity on Sept. 23.
The Education Department’s recommendation, Hart said, is one step in the “regular recognition process that the Council and other accreditors periodically complete.”
“As a national accrediting body for American law schools, we remain focused on ensuring quality legal education that produces competent, ethical attorneys who are eligible for licensure,” Hart said. “The outcomes produced by Council-accredited law schools are unmatched, and we continue the important work of accrediting law schools as our recognition process proceeds.”
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