Trump cut ties with the lawyers' association: moves to remove their accreditation role in universities

The government of President Donald Trump is moving forward with its intention to strip the American Bar Association of its historic authority to accredit law schools, a measure that could reform and liberalize higher education in the United States.

The American Bar Association (ABA) is the main nationally recognized body for the accreditation of American law schools, carrying out this work through its specialized council. Today, the Department of Education, with a report of nearly 500 pages, took the first step to end this practice, recommending that this entity no longer be recognized as an accrediting body.

For a U.S. university, whether public or private, to access federal student loan programs, and for its graduates to qualify for the bar exam, its law school must be approved by the ABA. This system has allowed organizations to impose ideological priorities on schools.

"We have said many times that accreditation, in general, operates like a cartel", said David Barker, Deputy Secretary of Education. "When there is no competition, accreditors feel free to inject their own political preferences, their own ideologies into the work they do", he added.

The Department of Education argues that the ABA's accreditation arm is not sufficiently independent from the organization as a whole or from the legal profession, and that it has required law schools to demonstrate "concrete action" toward diversity and inclusion among students, faculty, and staff as a condition for approval.

The government had already warned the ABA in February 2025 that its accreditation authority could be revoked. Now, with today's measure, the Department of Education's recommendation will go to a panel that reviews accrediting organizations before a final decision on the matter is issued in a few months.