In a February 28, 2025 letter, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi called on the American Bar Association’s Council of the Section of Legal Education to eliminate its diversity and inclusion requirements for law schools. Bondi warned that if the ABA fails to repeal the standard—which mandates that law schools demonstrate diversity efforts among faculty and students—the Department of Justice would initiate a formal review of the ABA’s role as the federally recognized accrediting agency for legal education.
The letter accuses the ABA of advancing ideological mandates over educational quality and claims the standard potentially violates federal anti-discrimination laws. Bondi asserts that maintaining the standard could jeopardize the ABA’s authority and calls for an immediate rollback to preserve what she describes as neutrality in legal education.