NYCLA President Ronald C. Minkoff told amNewYork Law that the Education Department\u2019s efforts to target the ABA are an ideologically driven campaign that does not reflect on the ABA\u2019s ability to effectively review education quality.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not broke, so don\u2019t fix it,\u201d Minkoff told amNewYork Law.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
The ABA\u2019s accreditation process for law schools is managed by the ABA Council <\/a>on the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, which serves as the independent, federally recognized national accrediting body for J.D. programs.<\/p>\n One of the benefits of this form of accreditation, Minoff explained, is that it creates a uniform set of standards across the country, and that allows lawyers to move across state lines for work more easily.<\/p>\n The Education Department under the Trump Administration has pushed forward a plan to end this authority. Last week, a federal panel called the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) deadlocked during a contentious hearing on the question of whether to take away the ABA Council\u2019s powers, leaving it to a Trump-appointed executive<\/a> to decide the matter.<\/p>\n Minkoff said that the idea to diminish the ABA\u2019s influence has been a longtime imperative of the Federalist Society and conservative legal voices. A central objection is to the ABA Council\u2019s Standard 206<\/a>, which suggests that law schools adopt DEI standards for admissions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Conservative critics consider the ABA\u2019s accreditation authority to be a form of using the government to inappropriately push a progressive ideology.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s also a long antipathy in the conservative movement through the ABA. They view it as generally too far to the left,\u201d Minkoff said. \u201cEvery time the ABA passes a resolution about gun control, the conservatives react, \u2018There they go again.\u2019 And the same with things like abortion and some other politically sensitive issues.\u201d<\/p>\n