Feb 12, 2025 Story by: Editor
A coalition of conservative legal organizations has called on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate several diversity-focused hiring initiatives of the American Bar Association (ABA), arguing that these programs prioritize minority and underrepresented applicants in a discriminatory manner.
The EEOC complaint, filed on Monday, marks the first direct legal challenge against the ABA since Donald Trump returned to the White House and escalated efforts to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across government, businesses, and other sectors. One of Trump’s executive orders directed federal agencies to scrutinize DEI policies within bar associations, universities, and private companies.
The ABA declined to comment on the latest EEOC complaint. However, last week, its policymaking body passed a resolution urging the Trump administration to amend the executive order, arguing that bar associations’ diversity initiatives are safeguarded by the First Amendment.
As the federally recognized accreditor of U.S. law schools, the ABA has approximately 150,000 paying members and has long identified diversity and inclusion as one of its four core goals.
Legal Challenge Against ABA Programs
The complaint was submitted by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, the Center for Equal Opportunity, and the American Civil Rights Project. These groups filed the case on behalf of Faculty, Alumni, and Students Opposed to Racial Preferences—a group that has previously sued flagship law journals over alleged bias in editor and article selection and is currently engaged in a lawsuit against Northwestern University’s law school, claiming discrimination against white men in faculty hiring.
The EEOC filing alleges that multiple ABA initiatives, including the Diversity Clerkship Program, the Judicial Intern Opportunity Program, and the Business Law Fellows Program, violate federal anti-discrimination laws by factoring race into their selection processes.
“It’s hard to imagine a clearer case of illegal behavior or an organization that should more clearly know better,” said American Civil Rights Project Executive Director Dan Morenoff in a prepared statement.
Prior Complaints and ABA’s Response
In May, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education, accusing the ABA of using racial quotas in its Judicial Clerkship Program. The program, established 24 years ago, aims to increase minority representation among judicial clerks.
Following that complaint, the ABA modified the program’s language, advising law schools to “select a diverse group of students” rather than the previous guideline, which recommended selecting four to six students “from underrepresented communities of color.”
However, the conservative legal groups argue that these adjustments do not fully eliminate discriminatory practices and claim that other ABA programs continue to employ similar race-based selection criteria. Source: Reuters
