American Bar Association Ends DEI Standards 

The American Bar Association’s accreditation council recently voted 10-6 to permanently eliminate its diversity requirement for law schools, effective immediately. The mandate had required law schools to show “concrete action” toward a diverse faculty and student body in order to maintain accreditation. The ABA’s move followed a 2025 Trump executive order targeting accreditation agencies, which accused the ABA’s diversity standard of violating the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling against race-conscious admissions, as well as similar pressure from the Education Department on accreditors in other fields like medicine. The ABA framed the decision as necessary to preserve the group’s federal and state recognition as an accreditor, while critics argued the standard wasn’t legally required to change and accused the legal profession of capitulating to political pressure, reports the New York Times (subscription required).