American Bar Association Set to Eliminate 'Race and Ethnicity' from Law School Diversity Rules

The American Bar Association is set to eliminate references to “race and ethnicity” from its law school diversity and inclusion rules to comply with the US Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling prohibiting colleges from considering race in admissions.

The ABA body that accredits law schools voted last week to seek public comments on a revised rule, under which schools must provide access to “all persons, including those with identities that have historically been disadvantaged or excluded from the legal profession.”

This would replace the current rule requiring schools to offer “full opportunities” for “racial and ethnic minorities” and to have a diverse student body “with respect to gender, race and ethnicity.”

Republican attorneys general from 21 states told the ABA in June that the current diversity and inclusion standard violates the court’s ruling “by explicitly requiring illegal consideration of race.”

Two weeks later, 19 Democratic attorneys general sent their own letter defending the legality of the current standard.

The ABA was already working to revise the standard when it received the conflicting letters, but the new version goes further than previous proposals by removing references to race, ethnicity, and gender, among other things.

The ABA will circulate the proposal for public comment and could approve it as early as its meeting in November. The change would then require final approval by the ABA's House of Delegates, which next meets in February.

The latest proposal shifts focus away from a “laundry list of identities” to the rule’s broader access goal, said University of Oklahoma law professor Carla Pratt, who sits on the ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar.

The proposal also calls for the “diversity and inclusion” standard to be renamed the “access to legal education and the profession” standard.

The only reference to race appears in guidance clarifying that the rules do not require schools to consider race or other identity characteristics in admissions or hiring decisions.

The proposed change comes at a time when diversity and inclusion initiatives are under increasing scrutiny.

The committee that developed the new rule reviewed the Supreme Court’s ruling, anti-diversity and inclusion laws adopted by various states, as well as the various letters from state attorneys general, Pratt said.

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