Read on Twitter
NEW: The American Bar Association could soon require all law schools to bar "disruptive conduct that hinders free expression,” according to a proposal from the group’s accreditation arm.
The proposal explicitly references the Stanford shoutdown.🧵freebeacon.com/campus/america…
The proposal explicitly references the Stanford shoutdown.🧵freebeacon.com/campus/america…
The draft requirement comes after House Republicans called on the ABA to investigate Stanford in the wake of the protest against Judge Kyle Duncan. Those events were "in the background" of the proposed standard, according to an August 2 memo from the ABA. freebeacon.com/campus/house-r…
Yale Law School and the University of California Hastings Law School experienced similar disruptions in 2022, each instigated by progressive students upset about a conservative speaker.
The accreditation standard reads as a direct response to those incidents.
The accreditation standard reads as a direct response to those incidents.
Law schools must "protect the rights of faculty, students, and staff to communicate ideas that may be controversial or unpopular," the draft requirement states, including through public demonstrations. americanbar.org/content/dam/ab…
At the same time, the standard would prohibit protests that stifle "free expression by preventing or substantially interfering with the carrying out of law school functions or approved activities."
The proposal comes amid accusations that the ABA has stifled free speech through its accreditation process, in part by requiring schools to instruct students that they have a duty to eliminate racism—a move many law professors said would imperil academic freedom.
The ABA also considered requiring law schools to "diversify" their student bodies—only to axe the proposal a month before the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, the case that outlawed race-based college admissions.
Though the group has long required law schools to have policies protecting academic freedom, it has offered few specifics on what those policies should entail. With disruptive protests becoming more common at top law schools, experts say the proposal would fill an important gap.
"The current standard doesn’t provide any substance," Paul Lannon, an attorney at Holland & Knight who specializes in education law, told ABA Journal, which is published by the American Bar Association. "This kind of guidance from the ABA is long overdue." abajournal.com/web/article/pr…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
