The Trump administration’s ongoing feud with the American Bar Association has come to a head, as the Education Department threatens to strip the organization of its power to oversee law school programs across the country.
Career staffers at the department recently recommended the ABA lose the federal recognition needed to operate as an accreditor. In a report made public Friday, staffers at the department said the ABA, which accredits nearly 200 law schools, had failed to keep both sides of its house “separate and independent,” undermining its effectiveness as an accreditor.
The association is both an accreditor for law schools and a trade group for legal professionals. As an accreditor, ABA oversees the quality of law school education and determines whether law schools not affiliated with a university can accept federal student aid.
President Donald Trump and other Republican lawmakers have accused the ABA of having a liberal bias and promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, pushing a political agenda in law schools. Conservatives have also criticized the ABA, which has accredited law schools since 1952, for having a monopoly on oversight of law school education.
The Education Department declined to comment.
David Barker, assistant secretary for postsecondary education, told the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the recommendation, “We have said many times that accreditation, in general, operates like a cartel. When there’s no competition, accreditors feel free to inject their own political preferences, their own ideologies into the work that they do.”
The ABA’s accreditation council chair, Melissa Hart, told The Washington Post the council is confident it complies with the Education Department’s requirements for accreditors and federal laws.
“The outcomes produced by Council-accredited law schools are unmatched, and we continue the important work of accrediting law schools as our recognition process proceeds,” she said in a statement.
The Education Department last approved the association to accredit law schools in 2021, a five-year designation that is up for review next month.
The federal government relies on accreditors, little-known but powerful organizations, to deem colleges worthy to participate in the federal student aid program and to review educational quality.
The report comes as the Trump administration seeks to reshape college accreditation, a system it has accused of being captured by liberal politics. The Education Department has proposed regulations to encourage intellectual diversity and increase competition among accreditors. The proposed rule also calls on accreditors and trade associations to be separate to prevent conflicts of interest.
Tensions have simmered between the ABA and the Trump administration on multiple fronts, including in court. Top Justice Department officials have repeatedly taken aim at the legal group.
Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote to the ABA last year that the group was biased in favor of Democrats and said the administration would not allow it to help vet judicial nominees.
Also last year, Todd Blanche — then the Justice Department’s No. 2 official, who has since replaced Bondi as attorney general — said that the agency would no longer pay for its employees to travel to the ABA’s events or allow them to even attend such functions.
The ABA has also sued the administration, including in a case challenging Trump’s campaign to crack down on prominent law firms.
Trump issued executive orders last year taking aim at several firms that had hired his perceived enemies or took on cases he disliked. Four of the firms that were targeted sued to fight those orders, and all of them won court orders blocking Trump’s sanctions.
The ABA filed its own lawsuit challenging Trump’s actions, saying it had to act to protect its members “and the rule of law itself.” The case is ongoing, and a judge earlier this year rejected the Trump administration’s effort to have the lawsuit thrown out.
An independent advisory board will meet next month to consider the Education Department’s recommendation and decide the ABA’s fate as an accreditor. A senior Education Department official will then weigh in.
“We look forward to the opportunity to address any misconceptions and clarify the record at our upcoming hearing,” Hart said. “We’re confident the Council will address any concerns the Department may have at that hearing.”
If the advisory board votes that the government should withdraw its recognition of the ABA as an accreditor and that decision is upheld by a senior department official, the ABA can then appeal to Education Secretary Linda McMahon.
If McMahon denies the appeal, law schools affiliated with a university could use their school’s accreditor, while unaffiliated schools will have to find a new accreditor.
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