Among the many institutions that have been captured during the left’s “long march” is the American Bar Association (ABA), which now is more interested in promoting “progressive” policy than in the integrity of the legal profession. It has been using its power to accredit law schools to push the DEI agenda.

There is, however, some good news on this front. As Sarah Parshall Perry explains in today’s Martin Center article, the ABA is retreating from its diversity standards in law school accreditation.

She writes:

The ABA has served as the sole federally recognized accreditor of American law schools since 1952. In practical terms, accreditation determines institutional survival. Graduates of non-ABA-accredited schools are often barred from taking state bar examinations or face severe restrictions in licensure mobility. Federal student loan eligibility also hinges on accreditation. For many law schools, losing ABA approval is tantamount to institutional death.

Starting in 2016, one of its standards demanded that schools take “concrete action” to promote diversity in their operations. What that meant was race-conscious admissions and hiring. But after the Supreme Court’s decision against racial discrimination in 2023, and with the Trump administration taking that seriously, the ABA decided to back down.

Another ABA standard required that students receive “instruction” in bias, racism, and cultural competency, a waste of time that created another opportunity for leftist propaganda. Perry observes, “Every hour devoted to compulsory ideological programming was an hour not spent developing substantive legal skills. Critics argued that aspiring attorneys were increasingly being trained less to think rigorously about the law and more to internalize fashionable sociological frameworks about power, privilege, and systemic bias.”

With the ABA dropping these mandates, law schools will still be able to serve as training centers for leftist activism, but at least those that prefer just to focus on legal education without this kind of ideological overlay will be free to do so.