ABA Settles With Blum Group That Alleged Racial Discrimination

The American Bar Association settled a lawsuit by an Edward Blum nonprofit that alleged law school scholarships were discriminatory.

The ABA and Blum’s American Alliance for Equal Rights acknowledged their settlement Monday in a filing in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. ABA will refrain from using race or ethnicity to determine scholarship eligibility, the filing said.

ABA’s Legal Opportunity Scholarship offers $15,000 to roughly 25 first-year law students. The alliance sued in April 2025 alleging the scholarship violates civil rights law by using “whiteness as a proxy for advantage and minority status as a proxy for disadvantage.”

Six months later, the ABA updated scholarship eligibility requirements to remove any reference to membership in an underrepresented racial or ethnic minority group, Monday’s filing said. The ABA instead required “a strong commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion,” it said.

“Indeed, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives enhance merit within the legal profession,” ABA President Michelle Behnke said in a statement. “An open, inclusive and unbiased legal system and profession strengthen justice and representation for all.”

Blum is a conservative legal activist who has sued companies, law firms and universities over alleged racial and ethnic preferences. His group won’t receive damages or relief, and no alliance member will receive scholarship funds, according to the Monday filing.

“Organizations, corporations, and schools across the country are recognizing that dividing people by race—whether labeled as ‘diversity’ or otherwise—is inconsistent with our civil rights laws,” Blum said in a statement. “We expect this decision to encourage further reforms.”

The alliance has been represented by attorneys at Virginia-founded boutique Consovoy McCarthy, including Thomas McCarthy, Cameron Norris, Matt Pociask and Gabriel Anderson. The ABA tapped lawyers at Jenner & Block, which is separately fighting an executive order by President Donald Trump in court, to defend against the allegations.

The case is American Alliance For Equal Rights v. American Bar Association, N.D. Ill., No. 1:25-cv-03980, unpublished 4/12/25