Tennessee Drops ABA Accreditation Requirement

Tennessee will no longer require American Bar Association accreditation for law schools whose graduates are seeking admission to the state bar, opening the door to alternative accreditors.

The Supreme Court of Tennessee made the change official in a Friday filing. Tennessee follows Alabama, Florida, Ohio and Texas in rolling back requirements that graduates taking the bar exam earn degrees from ABA-accredited law schools. All five states are led by Republicans, and GOP officials have been increasingly critical of the ABA’s diversity, equity and inclusion standards.

The ABA suspended its DEI standard in early 2025, shortly after President Donald Trump took office again. Its accreditation council also voted 10 to 6 last month to eliminate the diversity standard. 

Despite backpedaling on DEI, the ABA has found itself in the Trump administration’s crosshairs. The Department of Education said in August that federal recognition for the accreditor should not be renewed and accused it of violating federal requirements in more than two dozen ways.

Last month an Education Department accreditation committee—the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity—was unable to agree on whether recognition should be renewed, despite hours of discussion and multiple rounds of voting. In the end, NACIQI members voted to make no recommendation to the Department of Education on the ABA.