Taking a firm stand against the American Bar Association's (ABA) accreditation standards, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and 20 other state attorneys general have issued a collective demand for the ABA to halt what they view as "illegal racial discrimination" in law schools. According to the Tennessee Attorney General's office, the coalition asserts that the ABA's Standard 206 in its Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools 2023–2024 encourages race-based decisions in admissions and hiring, contrary to federal law.
The Tennessee Attorney General's office references the recent Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, asserting that even well-intentioned racial discrimination is illegal. The ABA, acting as the accrediting body for law schools, had proposed revisions to Standard 206, however, the proposed changes seem to retain elements that could lead to discrimination based on race. “The rule of law cannot long survive if the organization that accredits legal education requires every American law school to ignore the Constitution and civil rights law,” Skrmetti was quoted in the press release.
This argument by the coalition revolves around the intersection of striving for diversity and complying with anti-discriminatory legal standards. The group of attorneys general alleges that upholding Standard 206 would unfairly subject law schools to civil rights litigation as a result of discriminatory practices, potentially impacting the schools' reputation and financial stability. Emphasizing the gravity of these implications, the states' prosecutors called for the ABA to align its standards with federal law and its stated moral commitments.
Joining Tennessee in this demand are attorneys general from a wide swath across the United States, including Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. As the debate over admissions and hiring policies in education continues, with a particular focus on law schools, the ABA finds itself at the center of a contentious national dialogue on diversity, law, and the bounds of affirmative action in academic settings.
