Members of the House of Representatives are looking into whether the law school accreditation group, the American Bar Association, weaponized Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) to force discriminatory policies in admissions and coursework.
The House Oversight Committee’s Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Constitutional Abuses will hold a hearing Wednesday with ABA President Michelle Behnke to determine if the group actively pushed DEI policies at accredited schools.
In an interview with Just the News, Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, outlined what the task force will be looking to uncover through its line of questioning during Wednesday’s hearing.
Gill said that the task force will “analyze how the American Bar Association (ABA) has weaponized its accreditation authority to promote DEI policies that are contrary to federal civil rights law and the negative consequences in the legal profession that result from these harmful policies.”
“Members will also explore how Congress can help permanently eliminate DEI policies within American institutions, including the legal profession and academy,” added Gill.
The ABA has been at the center of intense scrutiny for several years over admissions and curricular policies that intentionally instill political agendas into law school programs.
In 2024, the Equal Protection Project responded to a call for comment from the ABA’s new “Proposed Revision,” which reportedly would remove aspects of DEI from the group’s official policies. EPP argued that the newly proposed policies still contained language that could be interpreted as promoting DEI practices, despite using updated terminology, particularly the phrase “identities that historically have been disadvantaged or excluded from the legal profession.”
“But by adding the ‘including those with identities that historically have been disadvantaged or excluded from the legal profession’ language, the ABA seems to be using a ‘dog whistle’ to signal to law schools that race and other identities should still be used to differentiate among law students and discriminate against those whose racial and other identities have not historically been disadvantaged or excluded from the legal profession,” wrote EPP founder William Jacobson.
Jacobson has been lobbying the ABA to remove discriminatory language from official policies since 2022, when he called on states to “stop requiring bar applicants to graduate from an ABA-accredited school,” over the DEI policies entrenched in these institutions.
“States enabled the ABA’s near-monopoly accrediting power, which now is being abused for ideological purposes,” noted Jacobson.
“What the states gave the ABA, the states can and should take away.”
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