ABA President Touts DEI After Delaying Law School Diversity Rule

The American Bar Association isn’t “retreating” from diversity, equity, and inclusion in the face of the Trump administration’s efforts to block such initiatives, the group’s leader told a Cleveland audience on Tuesday.

“Bias is real, and we have to confront it,” ABA President William R. Bay said. His comments at a City Club of Cleveland forum came after the group, amid pressure from the White House, in February suspended its DEI mandate for law schools.

Bay didn’t mention that during his remarks, instead focusing generally on the need for diversity in the legal profession and in court. He also referenced racial justice studies for the courts in Missouri, where he lives, and that his state is working to address them.

“I have yet to hear of any judge, anywhere, of any stripe, who does not believe that our courts should treat everyone fairly and impartially,” Bay said. “So does the ABA, and we’re going to have the courage to continue to say so and call for studies to remedy these situations.”

He also said the Trump administration presents a “false choice” when it posits that excellence isn’t tied to diversity.

“Excellence thrives on diversity and demands diversity,” Bay said. “We cannot let other people control the narrative. We must be out there talking about it.”

The forum also included a brief discussion with Senior Judge Dan Aaron Polster of the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio and questions from the audience of lawyers, students, and members of the public.

The visit comes a few weeks after the Ohio Supreme Court announced that it’s forming a group to review the accreditation process of the state’s nine law schools—a topic that has bubbled up in Texas and Florida as the prospect of a non-ABA accreditation body has been floated.

Bay didn’t address this during the forum but made clear that the ABA’s fight is about upholding the principles on which the US was founded.

“We must fight for what we believe in,” Bay said. “It is not a fight we want, but it’s laying on our doorstep, and we will meet the challenge.”

The ABA has found itself in several disputes with the White House over moves they say jeopardize the rule of law.

It sued the government last month for a campaign it says the White House is waging to intimidate some of the country’s top law firms. It has also defended its process for vetting judicial nominees after the Justice Department blocked the organization from evaluating Trump’s picks for the federal bench.