The Trump administration’s long war on the American Bar Association has opened a new front, and it’s… adjunct professors. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Justice Department has warned the ABA that it could face an antitrust investigation unless it loosens the accreditation rules limiting how much part-time faculty can teach law students.
The warning came in an Oct. 7 letter from Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, the DOJ’s No. 3 and before that Walt Nauta’s defense lawyer in Trump’s classified documents case, to the ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, the arm of the organization that actually accredits law schools. Woodward’s argument is that adjuncts are cheaper, often bring more real-world experience, and that capping their teaching load hurts legal education and pushes tuition up. The DOJ’s theory of legal education, apparently, is that knowing how to teach is the one qualification a law professor doesn’t need, and that a career spent learning how 1Ls actually learn is just a cost to cut. He gave the council 15 days to change the standard or explain why it doesn’t violate federal antitrust law. If the answer is deemed “insufficient,” the department “may proceed with additional investigatory steps necessary to address the apparent violation of federal antitrust law.”
Woodward also wrote that the standard appears to restrict his own ability to teach first-year students. Woodward, per his DOJ biography, is an adjunct law professor at Catholic University.
So, is that the issue? One senior Justice Department official who’d like a crack at the 1Ls? Or is it just another way for MAGAland to take a swipe at the ABA for the unforgivable sin of suing the White House (over its campaign against Biglaw and then asking for the receipts).
Last month, the council proposed eliminating its requirement that full-time faculty teach the first third of the curriculum, while still requiring full-timers to cover more than half of a school’s credit hours or two-thirds of student contact hours. Woodward’s letter says that won’t fully resolve the department’s concerns, and a spokeswoman for the council says it plans to respond.
If the “comply, and then get told it isn’t enough” routine sounds familiar, that’s because the ABA has been living it since the start of Trump 2.0. Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi demanded the ABA scrap its diversity standard back in early 2025 or risk losing its accreditor status. The ABA suspended Standard 206, extended the suspension, moved to repeal it, and finally killed it outright. Its reward? The Education Department moved to yank the ABA’s accreditor role anyway on the same day the council was voting to surrender. Meanwhile, the FTC blamed high law school tuition on ABA accreditation and started leaning on state supreme courts to stop relying on it, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched his own investigation into the ABA’s accreditation practices earlier this month.
The ABA thought it could buy peace by dropping Standard 206, but this administration isn’t (just) trying to end diversity — it’s also punishing institutions that oppose them.
Earlier: ABA Going To Lose Law School Accreditor Role On Same Day It Surrenders To Trump Administration
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FTC Blames High Law School Costs On ABA Accreditation
FTC presses Tennessee Supreme Court to drop ABA accreditation
ABA proposes repealing Standard 206
ABA’s Diversity Requirement Suspension Not Enough For Pam Bondi
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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Bluesky @Kathryn1
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