Administration Wants ABA Out of Accrediting Law Schools

President Trump is moving against the gatekeeper for American law schools. The Education Department began moving Friday to strip the American Bar Association of its role approving law schools for federal purposes, calling the ABA-run system a "cartel" that injects politics into accreditation. A 500-page department report argues the ABA's accrediting arm is too enmeshed with the legal profession it oversees. The bar association counters that it follows federal rules and delivers unmatched outcomes in training licensed attorneys, the Wall Street Journal reports.

"When there's no competition, accreditors feel free to inject their own political preferences, their own ideologies into the work that they do," said David Barker of the Education Department. Melissa Hart, the ABA's accreditation council chair, told the Washington Post that the council already complies with federal law and the department's requirements for accreditors. Any final decision is months away and would have to clear two more review steps. If the ABA loses, university-based law schools could lean on their universities' existing accreditors, while standalone schools would have to find new ones.