Forced Race Study In Law Schools

Lawyers will be forced to study race-based course to become lawyers. “Legal education is about to undergo a revolutionary change, with the American Bar Association poised to mandate race-focused study as a prerequisite to graduating from law school,” reports Legal Insurrection in a post titled American Bar Association Abusing Its Accreditation Power To Force Race-Focused Study On Law Students. “The American Bar Association once was a proxy for the American legal community. It has since moved to the left in many ways.”

Authors William A. Jacobson and Johanna E. Markind assert: “But it’s actually worse, because ABA is weaponizing its near-monopoly power to accredit law schools. In multiple proposals, one of which will be voted on by the ABA House of Delegates on February 14, 2022, and is all but certain to pass, ABA is forcing law schools to require that students take courses on race, particularly the CRT-driven systemic racism narrative. The hammer is that this is a requirement for the ABA to accredite the law school, so almost all law schools will have to comply.

“Now, the traditional mandatory ‘building block’ courses on contracts, torts, constitutional law, and others will be accompanied by the mandatory study of race. Of course, courses on race — namely Critical Race Theory — are offered in many if not most law schools. But the study is voluntary. No longer. Ideological dogma will be enforced by the ABA.

“The American Bar Association is poised to mandate race-focused study as a prerequisite to graduating from law school. It’s another instance of woke ideology being forced on the nation, and may necessitate that states revisit the ABA’s government-granted near-monopoly accrediting power.”

Jacobson and Markind write: “Now, the ABA wants to limit law student and faculty freedom of expression. Its proposed revision to Standard 303 (which will be presented to the ABA House of Delegates in mid-February 2022) mandates “educati[ng] law students on bias, cross-cultural competency, and racism.” Proposed Interpretation 303-7(3) suggests satisfying the new requirement with “[c]ourses on racism and bias in the law.” Proposed Interpretation 303-6 converts the existing professional responsibility requirement into teaching lawyers’ “obligation … to promote a justice system that provides equal access and eliminates bias, discrimination, and racism in the law.”

The authors conclude: “The ABA has become partisan, using its power to promote an ideological agenda.” They continue: “Without saying so openly, the revised standard in reality dictates that law schools should “institutionalize dogma.” The authors conclude that the only solutions for de-racializing legal education is for the states to remove the law school certification power from the American Bar Association or for the states to ignore the certifications.