I have discussed here too many times to cite the American Bar Association’s attempt, using its accreditation power, to force law schools to employ racial preferences. (Here, however, is a recent post that cites several earlier ones.) (Remember when many law schools complained that the Solomon Amendment was an affront to academic freedom? Apparently the ABA doesn’t.)
Now Curt Levey, general counsel of the Committee for Justice, reports that the Department of Justice has asked a federal court to hold the ABA in contempt for violating provisions of a 1996 consent decree that prohibited the ABA from misusing the accreditation process. Levey writes:
Critics of racial preferences have called attention to the ABA’s new diversity standard, and folks at DOJ may have been listening. Today’s DOJ press release explains that the ABA violated six provisions of the consent decree, including one that requires the ABA to “provide proposed changes to accreditation standards to the United States for review before such changes are acted on by the ABA’s [accrediting council].” I don’t know whether the new diversity standard is among those the ABA failed to submit for review. But I’m willing to bet that, at very least, the controversy over the standard caused folks at DOJ to take a closer look at the ABA’s accreditation standards in general. And when you take a closer look, you never know what violations you might find.
