For seven decades, a left-wing lawyers’ lobbying group has held a government-granted monopoly over who gets to call themselves an attorney in America. The Trump administration just moved to take it away.
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The recommendation landed Friday after the release of a Department of Education review that ran nearly 500 pages. Staff found the American Bar Association (ABA)’s accreditation operation “out of compliance” with federal regulations and recognition standards.
Nearly 200 law schools carry ABA accreditation. For most of them, the real leverage isn’t federal aid; it’s the bar exam. Most states won’t let graduates of non-ABA schools sit for it. That’s where the ABA’s grip comes from, and that’s what states like Texas just started loosening.
Read More: The ABA Thought It Could Force DEI on Law Schools Forever – Then Trump Returned
Part of the department’s problem was organizational. The same group suing the administration also holds the keys to law school approval. Federal rules say those two jobs need to be separate. Staff said they weren’t.
David Barker, assistant secretary for postsecondary education, didn’t mince words. He called it what it is: a cartel.
“When there’s no competition, accreditors feel free to inject their own political preferences, their own ideologies into the work that they do.”
DEI was the other problem in the report. Staff cited how long the ABA took to back away from a rule requiring law schools to show a commitment to diversity, even after the Supreme Court barred race-conscious college admissions in 2023. The ABA waited until February 2025 to suspend it.
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Trump signed an executive order in April 2025 putting the ABA in the crosshairs. The order called out by name the ABA’s rule pushing law schools to diversify student bodies and faculties by race, ethnicity, and sex, and told Education Secretary Linda McMahon to figure out whether to pull the council’s federal recognition entirely.
“American students and taxpayers deserve better. Federal recognition will not be provided to accreditors engaging in unlawful discrimination in violation of Federal law.”
Trump’s order went beyond the ABA. It told the department to recognize new accreditors, make it easier for schools to switch, and put more weight on student results instead of ideological mandates.
On the same day the department dropped its report, the ABA’s accreditation council was already in damage-control mode. It voted out a 2022 rule requiring law schools to teach bias, racism, and cross-cultural competency. It trimmed its nondiscrimination rule. And it scheduled another vote on the diversity standard for September 8, after the full ABA had just voted to keep it weeks earlier.
Melissa Hart, who chairs the ABA Accreditation Council, said the organization would make its case when it meets with the federal advisory committee in September.
“An initial recommendation from Department staff represents one step in the regular recognition process,” Hart said. “We’re confident the Council will address any concerns.
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Translation: they’re hoping September 8 goes better than Friday did.
The advisory committee takes it up September 23 and 24. After that, Undersecretary Nicholas Kent makes the call. Final decision comes months later.
Only nine freestanding law schools depend on ABA recognition for federal student aid. But that’s not really the point. The ABA’s power has always run through the bar exam, and that’s the door states like Texas are now starting to close.
Some states didn’t wait for Washington. Texas walked away from ABA-only approval in January. Florida, Ohio, and Tennessee are all looking at doing the same, and they’re not shy about why. Florida’s Supreme Court cited the ABA’s “active political engagement” when it launched its review.
By Friday, the ABA’s accreditation council was scrambling, voting to strip out the very rules that got them here. Too little, too late. Texas already left. Washington is watching. September will be a reckoning.
Editor’s Note: President Trump is fighting to ensure America’s kids get the education they deserve.
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