President Trump May Revoke ABA’s Power Over Law Schools

Big change is coming across the board as the Establishment’s DEI agenda gets removed.

Trump Targets American Bar Association Accreditation Power – Something I've Advocated For Years — I’m proud that I was against the ABA before it was cool to be against the ABA. https://t.co/Y23BiTPFa5 pic.twitter.com/dJ8OpPtSrw

— William A. Jacobson (@wajacobson) April 24, 2025

Reuters reports:

The Trump Administration said in an executive order on Wednesday that it is considering revoking the American Bar Association’s status as the federally recognized accreditor of law schools, a change that could impact lawyer licensing, student loans and attorney mobility, legal education experts said.

President Donald Trump said he was directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to assess whether to suspend or terminate the ABA as the government’s official law school accreditor, citing its “unlawful ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ requirements,” as part of an executive order, opens new tab focused on reforming higher education accreditation. The order also calls for a similar review of two medical school accrediting bodies.

The ABA did not provide comment on the order.
Trump’s order followed a similar warning by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in March which had said that the government could revoke the ABA’s accreditor status. The U.S. Department of Education has recognized the ABA as the accreditor of law schools since 1952.

Bondi said in a March letter to the ABA that she wanted it to repeal its law school diversity rule and scrap a planned revision. The ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar suspended, opens new tab the diversity rule in February.
A national accreditation system like the ABA’s gives law graduates more mobility and “protects the public as well as the substantial investments law students make in legal education,” said Kellye Testy, executive director of the Association of American Law Schools.

A single accreditation system enables law graduates to work in any state and in rural areas that don’t have a law school, Testy said.
If the ABA loses its accreditation status, it could lead to a “patchwork of licensure requirements,” said Austen Parrish, dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law. The vast majority of states currently require law students to graduate from an ABA-accredited law school in order to sit for the bar exam.

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The American Bar Association sued the DOJ on Wednesday, claiming it illegally terminated federal grants in retaliation for the lawyer organization's criticism of the Trump administration. https://t.co/xKdPHlNnRY

— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) April 25, 2025

“Organization claims $2.3m in grants illegally cancelled in retaliation for public criticism of Trump administration“

[American Bar Association sues justice department over terminated grants | Trump administration | The Guardian] https://t.co/Xa5vjDJlOI

— Norio Nakatsuji (@norionakatsuji) April 25, 2025

Newsmax reports:

The American Bar Association sued the Department of Justice on Wednesday, claiming it illegally terminated federal grants in retaliation for the lawyer organization’s public criticism of the Trump administration.

The ABA asked a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to block the Justice Department and Attorney General Pam Bondi from canceling $3.2 million in grants used to train lawyers to represent victims of domestic and sexual violence, saying the move violates the First Amendment. The ABA on Thursday sought a temporary restraining order from the court to block the government from terminating the grants.

Neither the Justice Department nor the ABA immediately responded to requests for comment on Thursday.

The Justice Department terminated the grants on April 10, a day after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche sent a memo barring Justice Department attorneys from traveling to or speaking at ABA events. Blanche said the organization had engaged in “activist causes” contrary to the department’s mission, according to the suit filed in a Washington D.C. federal court.

The lawsuit escalates the ongoing conflict between the White House and the ABA, which has about 150,000 members and advocates for the legal profession.

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A Trump spokesperson in March called the ABA a “snooty” organization of “leftist lawyers” after the group said in public statements that Trump’s cutbacks to federal agencies and funding is threatening the rule of law. The ABA has also for condemned government officials’ attacks on judges and law firms. In February, the ABA sued to block Trump from cutting funding to foreign aid organizations.

The whole legal system needs an overhaul.