A Wall Street Journal Article on the ABA requiring what looks like a quota if minorities. I was reminded of Thomas Sowell's latest book, Economic Facts and Fallacies, in which he has a section dedicated to the ABA's means-oriented approach to accreditation.
Rather than require a certain number of courses in specific topics or require that each class have a certain number of minorities, the ABA should just look at the ends. Let each law school design its program as it sees fit, and the ABA can just look at the overall bar passage rates and the bar passage rates of its minorities. If both rates are high, who cares if the law schools is accomplishing this by having less than a fixed number of credits in writing or ethics.
I think his most important point is that affirmative action does not do minorities any favors. Affirmative action has encouraged minorities to enroll in higher ranked law schools with low minority bar passage rates instead of staying at lower ranked law schools with dramatically higher minority bar passage rates.
Rather than require a certain number of courses in specific topics or require that each class have a certain number of minorities, the ABA should just look at the ends. Let each law school design its program as it sees fit, and the ABA can just look at the overall bar passage rates and the bar passage rates of its minorities. If both rates are high, who cares if the law schools is accomplishing this by having less than a fixed number of credits in writing or ethics.
I think his most important point is that affirmative action does not do minorities any favors. Affirmative action has encouraged minorities to enroll in higher ranked law schools with low minority bar passage rates instead of staying at lower ranked law schools with dramatically higher minority bar passage rates.
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