Attorney General Alan Wilson Pushes Back Against Unlawful Racial Discrimination in Law School Admissions
January 7, 2025
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson signed onto a letter raising concerns that proposed changes to the American Bar Association’s (ABA) admission standards for law schools violate a Supreme Court ruling and unlawfully use racial preferences when deciding which students to accept.
“Merit should be the criteria for law school admission, not racial preference,” said Attorney General Wilson. “The U.S. Supreme Court already made it clear that law schools can’t admit students and hire faculty based on race, and yet the American Bar Association’s new standard is telling them to do just that.”
Attorney General Wilson joined a 21-state coalition of attorneys general in writing to the American Bar Association’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. The letter points out that the ABA’s revised “Diversity and Inclusion” standard fails to consider the Supreme Court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.
“As you well know, the Supreme Court held in SFFA that the use of race in the admissions process at Harvard and the University of North Carolina violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause,” the attorneys general say in their letter. However, the ABA’s revised standard seems to ask law schools to defy the Court’s clear directive against racial discrimination.
“In its current form, the Standard all but compels law schools to consider race in both the admissions and employment contexts,” the letter says.
The attorneys general urge the Council of the American Bar Association to revise its standard to make it clear that federal law prohibits race-based admissions and hiring.
Joining Attorney General Wilson in the letter, led by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, are the attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and West Virginia,
