WASHINGTON — The council of the American Bar Association’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar voted 10–6 on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, with one abstention, to repeal Standard 206 — the accreditation rule that required law schools to “demonstrate by concrete action a commitment to diversity and inclusion.” The repeal is final and effective immediately, the ABA Journal and Inside Higher Ed reported.

Standard 206 had been suspended since February 2025 after the Supreme Court’s 2023 affirmative-action ruling and a wave of state and federal pushback. The council already voted once to repeal in May; the ABA House of Delegates declined to concur in August. Under new procedures, Tuesday’s special virtual session was the soonest the council could finalize the kill — and it did so over House objections.

Chair Melissa Hart framed the vote as pragmatic survival, not a values referendum. “The council believes that national accreditation of law schools is in the best interests of law students, the legal profession and the public,” she said in a statement, adding that repeal was “necessary to preserve recognition by a growing number of state courts, as well as the department.” At the meeting she called it “not a value choice” but “a pragmatic question about how do we retain that national accreditation status.”

The urgency is federal leverage. The Education Department’s August staff report recommended denying the council’s continued recognition as the sole national law-school accreditor, citing independence and DEI issues. The council faces the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) on Sept. 23–24; Under Secretary Nicholas Kent makes the final call afterward. Trump’s April 2025 accreditation executive order named Standard 206 among “unlawful mandates” to eradicate. Schools that lose a recognized accreditor risk student-aid eligibility and portable bar admission.

Four of the six “no” votes went on the record. Opponents including Deidré Keller argued the repeal would be read as abandoning diverse lawyers for a diverse public. Supporters who personally disliked the outcome, including interim treasurer David Brennen, said state supreme courts increasingly treat 206 as a “political requirement” that could splinter national accreditation into a dozen rival regimes — a worse outcome for students who need licenses that travel.

Repeal does not ban campus DEI programs; it strips the accreditor’s power to force them as a condition of staying accredited. Other diversity-related standards remain under discussion. Concentrated accreditation power plus a federal recognition kill-switch is why a single council vote now moves faster than years of comment cycles: when one gatekeeper can lock the profession, politics follows the gate.

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