The Department of Education has moved to end the American Bar Association’s (ABA) authority to accredit law schools, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. The department took the first official step to limit this oversight power on Friday, challenging a role the ABA has held for approximately 70 years. The ABA currently oversees the accreditation of nearly 200 law schools across the United States.
Assistant Education Secretary David Barker told the Wall Street Journal that the current accreditation process functions "like a cartel" due to a lack of competition among oversight agencies. Barker stated that this structure allows accreditors to "inject their own political preferences" into the process. The ABA has faced previous criticism from Republican officials, including Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who in late 2025 characterized the association as a political arm of the left.
In response, Melissa Hart, chair of the ABA’s Accreditation Council, described the department’s action as a "step in the regular recognition process" that all accreditors undergo periodically. Hart stated the council is confident it will address the department's concerns during a forthcoming hearing, which she identified as the next step in the administrative process. The ABA and the Department of Education did not provide immediate comment to other media inquiries.
Beyond financial aid, the change would fundamentally alter the path to legal practice for graduates in most states. Currently, many states require a degree from an ABA-accredited program as a prerequisite for taking the bar exam. If the ABA loses its status, students in these states would notice a change in their legal right to seek professional licensure. The exact timeline for when these changes might reach the classroom or the bar exam remains dependent on the outcome of a future Department of Education hearing and any subsequent legal challenges.
The move also sets a precedent for how the federal government interacts with private accrediting bodies that maintain educational standards. It follows other recent Department of Education actions, such as a March announcement of investigations into more than 50 colleges regarding "racial preferences" in admissions. The next formal step in this process is an administrative hearing where the ABA will be required to defend its accreditation standards before the Department of Education.