{"id":141182,"date":"2026-01-07T14:43:41","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T22:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/07\/texas-supreme-court-takes-on-role-as-law-school-accreditor\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T14:43:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T22:43:41","slug":"texas-supreme-court-takes-on-role-as-law-school-accreditor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/07\/texas-supreme-court-takes-on-role-as-law-school-accreditor\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Supreme Court Takes On Role As Law School Accreditor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Welp. They\u2019ve done did it. The Texas Supreme Court has officially ended its overt reliance on the ABA to accredit its law schools. From now on (or until they outsource the responsibility onto someone else), the Lone Star State\u2019s Supreme Court will call the shots on which law schools are qualified to crank out its future lawyers. Bloomberg Law<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

In the Jan. 6 order, the Texas Supreme Court noted that it intends to ensure that law degrees from schools in Texas are portable to other states, and vice-versa. It also doesn\u2019t plan to impose any additional burdens on law school accreditation, it said.
The court said it would consider returning to a multi-state accreditation entity that isn\u2019t the ABA \u201cshould a suitable entity become available.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While it is nice to know that the state\u2019s supreme court plans to do something about degree portability, they could have come with more than concepts of a plan<\/a> \u2014 portability is literally<\/em> the biggest issue with breaking off from the ABA. Perhaps Florida<\/a> and Tennessee will wait to see if Texas successfully irons out the quirks before they sever ties with the ABA.<\/p>\n

Further, I can\u2019t wait to see what Texas\u2019s cert qualifications look like once they\u2019re standing on their own two feet. For now, the schools that are already on the court\u2019s good side just need to stay in compliance with ABA standards 316, 502(a)-(c), 503, and 509 to maintain approval. Is this a hint of what \u201cending reliance on the ABA\u201d means? Copy and pasting existent ABA standards and deleting the parts about women and other minorities not being included? Just reads like a short-lived accreditation version of Bender\u2019s theme park<\/a>. The only other notable change is that the Supreme Court stated that the ABA no longer accrediting a law school does not necessarily mean that the school wouldn\u2019t be in good favor with the Court. That is a nice buffer of safety for Texan lawyers practicing in Texas, but remind me, how does that square with the promise of portability again?<\/p>\n

Good luck to the Texas Supreme Court and all of the students struggling to learn RAP at Texas law schools. And if things ever get rough, just remember \u2014 it probably would have been easier if you just let the ABA do its job.<\/p>\n

Texas Supreme Court Takes Over Law School Accreditation From ABA<\/a> [Bloomberg Law]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Texas Plans To Cut Law School Accreditation Ties With The ABA<\/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 . \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>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Texas Supreme Court Takes On Role As Law School Accreditor<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Welp. They\u2019ve done did it. The Texas Supreme Court has officially ended its overt reliance on the ABA to accredit its law schools. From now on (or until they outsource the responsibility onto someone else), the Lone Star State\u2019s Supreme Court will call the shots on which law schools are qualified to crank out its future lawyers. Bloomberg Law<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

In the Jan. 6 order, the Texas Supreme Court noted that it intends to ensure that law degrees from schools in Texas are portable to other states, and vice-versa. It also doesn\u2019t plan to impose any additional burdens on law school accreditation, it said.
The court said it would consider returning to a multi-state accreditation entity that isn\u2019t the ABA \u201cshould a suitable entity become available.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While it is nice to know that the state\u2019s supreme court plans to do something about degree portability, they could have come with more than concepts of a plan<\/a> \u2014 portability is literally<\/em> the biggest issue with breaking off from the ABA. Perhaps Florida<\/a> and Tennessee will wait to see if Texas successfully irons out the quirks before they sever ties with the ABA.<\/p>\n

Further, I can\u2019t wait to see what Texas\u2019s cert qualifications look like once they\u2019re standing on their own two feet. For now, the schools that are already on the court\u2019s good side just need to stay in compliance with ABA standards 316, 502(a)-(c), 503, and 509 to maintain approval. Is this a hint of what \u201cending reliance on the ABA\u201d means? Copy and pasting existent ABA standards and deleting the parts about women and other minorities not being included? Just reads like a short-lived accreditation version of Bender\u2019s theme park<\/a>. The only other notable change is that the Supreme Court stated that the ABA no longer accrediting a law school does not necessarily mean that the school wouldn\u2019t be in good favor with the Court. That is a nice buffer of safety for Texan lawyers practicing in Texas, but remind me, how does that square with the promise of portability again?<\/p>\n

Good luck to the Texas Supreme Court and all of the students struggling to learn RAP at Texas law schools. And if things ever get rough, just remember \u2014 it probably would have been easier if you just let the ABA do its job.<\/p>\n

Texas Supreme Court Takes Over Law School Accreditation From ABA<\/a> [Bloomberg Law]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Texas Plans To Cut Law School Accreditation Ties With The ABA<\/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 . \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>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welp. They\u2019ve done did it. The Texas Supreme Court has officially ended its overt reliance on the ABA to accredit its law schools. From now on (or until they outsource the responsibility onto someone else), the Lone Star State\u2019s Supreme Court will call the shots on which law schools are qualified to crank out its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":141157,"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-141182","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\/2026\/01\/Chris-Williams-2025-V7vOWj.jpg?fit=512%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141182","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=141182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}