The ABA Council has suspended the enforcement of its "Diversity and Inclusion" accreditation standard, known as Standard 206, amid political pressures and federal directives. This decision was made to protect law schools from potential legal conflicts arising from compliance. The council aims to draft new guidelines for consideration later in the year and will assist law schools through consultations. They will also review Standard 205, focused on non-discrimination, which will still be enforced, while Standard 303-C, regarding cultural education, faces no changes.
The committee's view is that with the executive orders and the law being in flux, it would be an extreme hardship for law schools if our standards were to require them to do certain things that may cause them to take more litigation risks and potentially violate the law.
In the interim, members of the council's managing director's office will consult law schools with scheduled accreditation site visits this spring, and the staff will be putting together written guidance.
In addition, the council's standard committee will take a new look at Standard 205, titled 'Non‐Discrimination and Equality of Opportunity,' but its enforcement was not suspended.
The council voted to pause its work on the latest round of revisions to the contentious rule—known as Standard 206—while developing a new draft that could be presented to the ABA House of Delegates at the ABA Annual Meeting in August.
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