The Texas Supreme Court has signalled its intention to end the American Bar Association’s (ABA) longstanding role in accrediting law schools for bar admission purposes, marking the first such move by a U.S. state. In a preliminary order issued on 27 September 2025, the court stated its “tentative opinion” that the ABA should no longer determine which law schools’ graduates are eligible for admission to the Texas Bar. Instead, the court plans to assume direct authority to designate “approved” law schools under state admission rules.
The decision reflects a growing national trend, with Florida, Ohio, and Tennessee also reviewing their reliance on the ABA amid concerns over the organization’s diversity mandates and political engagement. While the Texas court has yet to outline the operational framework of its proposed approval system, it has invited public feedback by 1 December 2025, with changes expected to take effect from 1 January 2026. The court emphasised that its goal is to maintain law degree portability and avoid imposing additional administrative burdens on law schools by using “simple, objective, and ideologically neutral criteria,” such as bar passage rates.
The ABA expressed readiness to collaborate with Texas to preserve a unified national accreditation system, while several Texas law deans cautioned that decoupling from the ABA could disrupt lawyer mobility and regulatory stability. The move introduces significant uncertainty for legal education, highlighting tensions between state autonomy and national standards in the accreditation of law schools.