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Opposition to ABA’s proposal to revamp its “diversity and inclusion” standards in the wake of SCOTUS decision in SFFA

As Karen Sloan reports for Reuters:

The proposed new standard—renamed the “access to legal education and the profession” standard—eliminates references to race, ethnicity and gender and instead requires law schools to provide access to “persons including those with identities that historically have been disadvantaged or excluded from the legal profession.”

A letter from 44 Deans can be seen here.  They argue that, "Nothing in the Court's ruling [in SFFA] precludes schools from continuing to pursue diversity as an objective. Rather, the Court limited the means that may be used. The Court did not prohibit schools — or the American Bar Association — from pursuing the goal of a diverse student body and a diverse faculty."  This is a plausible, but it seems to me optimistic, reading of the import of the SFFA decision.  Given the current composition of SCOTUS, I will be surprised if, when asked to clarify this import, this reading will be vindicated.  The ABA is obviously trying to "play it safe," lest momentum grow in a second Trump Administration (gasp) to disempower it as an accreditor.

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