{"id":118136,"date":"2025-05-07T07:02:52","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T15:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/05\/07\/aba-likely-to-extend-suspension-of-diversity-requirement-for-law-school-accreditation\/"},"modified":"2025-05-07T07:02:52","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T15:02:52","slug":"aba-likely-to-extend-suspension-of-diversity-requirement-for-law-school-accreditation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/05\/07\/aba-likely-to-extend-suspension-of-diversity-requirement-for-law-school-accreditation\/","title":{"rendered":"ABA Likely To Extend Suspension Of Diversity Requirement For Law School Accreditation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You don\u2019t have to be an attorney to know that it\u2019s hard to follow the rules when they\u2019re in conflict. For years, the ABA required that law schools had to show some effort in admitting women and other members of historically disenfranchised groups. But after the Supreme Court\u2019s decision to strike down affirmative action, schools effectively had to choose between being accredited or running afoul of the Blum brigade<\/a> and Trump\u2019s executive orders. The ABA eased up the burden on law schools by suspending the DEI accreditation requirement near the end of Black History Month<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Really couldn\u2019t have waited until March, huh?<\/p>\n

When the suspension was announced, I was openly suspicious of the \u201ctemporariness\u201d of the decision. As it stands, that take is aging beautifully. ABA Journal<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

The suspension of ABA accreditation Standard 206, originally titled \u201cDiversity and Inclusion,\u201d should be extended until Aug. 31, 2026, according to a May 2 memo from the standards committee of the ABA\u2019s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.
\u2026
\u201cThe council should find that extraordinary circumstances exist in which compliance with Standard 206 will continue to constitute extreme hardship for multiple law schools,\u201d according to the committee\u2019s memo.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Extraordinary is an understatement. The row between Harvard and the Trump administration cost them billions of dollars in future research grants<\/a> so long as they refuse to kiss the ring. Harvard enjoys a sizeable amount of autonomy given its $53B endowment<\/a>, but most schools don\u2019t have nearly as much money in their coffers for softening the economic hardship of rebellion. As bad as it would be for the rule of law, acquiescing to whatever Trump demands could be the only way that many schools will be able to keep their doors open. With that in mind, the push to not enforce the diversity standard for a while makes sense.<\/p>\n

Continued Suspension Of Diversity Standard Suggested By ABA Legal Ed Committee<\/a> [ABA Journal]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: ABA Suspends DEI Accreditation Requirements For Law Schools<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s<\/a>. \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com<\/a>\u00a0and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post ABA Likely To Extend Suspension Of Diversity Requirement For Law School Accreditation<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You don\u2019t have to be an attorney to know that it\u2019s hard to follow the rules when they\u2019re in conflict. For years, the ABA required that law schools had to show some effort in admitting women and other members of historically disenfranchised groups. But after the Supreme Court\u2019s decision to strike down affirmative action, schools effectively had to choose between being accredited or running afoul of the Blum brigade<\/a> and Trump\u2019s executive orders. The ABA eased up the burden on law schools by suspending the DEI accreditation requirement near the end of Black History Month<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Really couldn\u2019t have waited until March, huh?<\/p>\n

When the suspension was announced, I was openly suspicious of the \u201ctemporariness\u201d of the decision. As it stands, that take is aging beautifully. ABA Journal<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

The suspension of ABA accreditation Standard 206, originally titled \u201cDiversity and Inclusion,\u201d should be extended until Aug. 31, 2026, according to a May 2 memo from the standards committee of the ABA\u2019s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.
\u2026
\u201cThe council should find that extraordinary circumstances exist in which compliance with Standard 206 will continue to constitute extreme hardship for multiple law schools,\u201d according to the committee\u2019s memo.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Extraordinary is an understatement. The row between Harvard and the Trump administration cost them billions of dollars in future research grants<\/a> so long as they refuse to kiss the ring. Harvard enjoys a sizeable amount of autonomy given its $53B endowment<\/a>, but most schools don\u2019t have nearly as much money in their coffers for softening the economic hardship of rebellion. As bad as it would be for the rule of law, acquiescing to whatever Trump demands could be the only way that many schools will be able to keep their doors open. With that in mind, the push to not enforce the diversity standard for a while makes sense.<\/p>\n

Continued Suspension Of Diversity Standard Suggested By ABA Legal Ed Committee<\/a> [ABA Journal]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: ABA Suspends DEI Accreditation Requirements For Law Schools<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s<\/a>. \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>\u00a0and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You don\u2019t have to be an attorney to know that it\u2019s hard to follow the rules when they\u2019re in conflict. For years, the ABA required that law schools had to show some effort in admitting women and other members of historically disenfranchised groups. But after the Supreme Court\u2019s decision to strike down affirmative action, schools […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":117999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ABA-Logo-iOka0p.jpeg?fit=400%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}