How the Trump White House Is Trying to Bring the Legal Profession to Heel

Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Department of Education had taken the first step in hobbling the American Bar Association’s exclusive role in accrediting law schools. Most states require that students graduate from an ABA-accredited law school in order to sit for the bar exam, and accreditation allows law students to gain access to federal loans at better terms for students than private lenders. The Department of Education’s move fits into a larger mission from the Trump administration—to bring the ABA to heel and undercut any opposition it might pose, and to signal to other groups to tread carefully, lest they face similar attacks.

If this shift were to happen, it would not happen overnight. The accreditation and licensure of lawyers is a thicket of laws, regulations, and judicial rules, and the Department of Education has only just begun its process. And it would not necessarily be disastrous: Even if the Trump administration does remove the ABA as an accreditor, most law schools, as part of a larger university, would rely on the organization that accredits the university instead.

Even so, the Department of Education’s actions demonstrate how the Trump administration’s campaign against higher education and civil society dictates much of its policy agenda, no matter how picayune. On the same day that the Journal published its story, the ABA’s Accreditation Council voted to repeal a standard requiring law schools to train students on bias, cross-cultural competency, and racism in response to right-wing pressure from groups like Defending Education, which described the standard as “ideological instruction.” The coincidental timing highlights the pointlessness of accommodating this administration’s bully tactics.