TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Azya Thornton on May 7, 2025

The American Alliance for Equal Rights on April 12 filed a federal lawsuit against the American Bar Association (ABA) alleging that the ABA’s Legal Opportunity Scholarship Fund is racially discriminatory and unlawfully excludes white students. The complaint challenges the program under a federal statute that guarantees all individuals the right to make and enforce contracts regardless of race, Bloomberg News reports. The suit also references past challenges to the ABA's judicial clerkship program and a temporarily suspended diversity requirement for law school accreditation. In 2024, the ABA loosened its requirements for the clerkship program. In March, the Trump administration directed the group to permanently eliminate the diversity standard or risk losing its accrediting authority.