Dec 2 (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday called the American Bar Association’s accreditation of law schools a “monopoly” that increases the cost of a law degree and limits the supply of new lawyers.
The agency made the assessment in a letter, opens new tab to the Texas Supreme Court, which invited public comment after saying in September that it plans to end the state’s reliance on the ABA for law school oversight.
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The FTC endorsed the Texas plan to have the state’s high court determine which law schools’ graduates can be admitted as lawyers in the state, calling it an “important step in weakening the ABA’s enduring monopoly and resulting power to impose costly, overly burdensome law school accreditation requirements.”
The ABA is the only nationally recognized accreditor of U.S. law schools. The FTC said the organization requires law schools to “conform to controversial ideological views prevalent among the legal elitists.”
It cited the ABA’s diversity and inclusion rule for schools, which requires law schools to demonstrate their commitment to diversity in recruitment, admissions and programming. The rule has been suspended since February, and the ABA has proposed eliminating it altogether.
