FTC Chairman Urges States to Dump ABA Law School Accreditation

The Trump administration’s top antitrust regulator wants states to stop relying on the American Bar Association to vet and approve law schools.

The ABA is “effectively” a branch of the Democratic Party, US Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson said Thursday. The organization, which Ferguson also compared to the Communist Party of America, should not have the primary power to determine which law schools can send students to sit for state bar exams, he said.

“I find it, in a federal system, extraordinarily strange that we have one single national organization, effectively run out of Washington and New York, decide what it takes to be a good lawyer in Texas, or decide what it takes to be a good lawyer in Florida or Tennessee,” Ferguson said at an event organized by the Federalist Society, a conservative think-tank.

Ferguson’s remarks punctuate a growing movement in red states to scrap the ABA’s sole law school accreditation role. He applauded Texas and Florida for moving earlier this year to weaken the ABA’s power, and called for other states to find new processes for determining bar exam eligibility.

“Is it good for our people—whom our lawyers are supposed to serve at the end of the day—to have a giant national organization who has allied itself unapologetically with the most radically progressive elements of the American political system to decide whether you get to be a lawyer in our state?” Ferguson said at the event in Washington. “I think the answer is unambiguously no.”

Reached for comment, Daniel Thies, chair of the ABA council responsible for law school accreditation, said the organization is recognized as an accreditor nationwide because it is “committed to ensuring that lawyers receive a quality legal education so they can competently and ethically serve their clients and the public.”

“The consistent quality of council-accredited schools and student outcomes is a testament to that commitment,” Thies said. “It is a privilege and an honor to serve the state supreme courts in this important way, and we look forward to continuing to support our legal system long into the future.”

President Donald Trump last year ordered the Education Department to scrutinize the law school accreditation process. High courts in Texas and Florida this year issued rulings that ended the ABA’s role as sole law school accreditor. Courts in Ohio and Tennessee are also reviewing their state’s accreditation processes.

Ferguson last year banned FTC staff from holding ABA leadership positions, attending group events, or renewing memberships with the organization. The Labor Department and other agencies have since followed the move.

The FTC leader, who was nominated by President Joe Biden for a Republican seat on the commission, said the ABA’s political alignment is clear in the “bad marks” it’s given to qualified Trump judicial nominees. He also cited the organization’s recent trainings on litigating cases related to the Equal Rights Amendment, which would have inscribed equal protection under the law regardless of sex in the US Constitution if ratified.

Ferguson has also targeted law firms. In January, he sent letters to more than 40 Big Law firms warning them that their participation in diversity hiring programs could violate antitrust laws.

Brent Webster, first assistant attorney general of Texas, and David Dewhirst, Florida’s solicitor general, also spoke at the Thursday event. The FTC argued in favor of the Texas move to roll back the ABA’s influence.

“I’m very happy two states of the size and power of Texas and Florida were the first to do it,” he said. “You can expect that the FTC is going to continue to weigh in on the question as other states take it up.”