08/21/2026
🙄😡
BREAKING: Trump moves to strip power from the American Bar Association, opening another front in his broader assault on the institutions that uphold the rule of law.
The Education Department has issued a nearly 500-page report recommending that the American Bar Association lose its longstanding authority to accredit law schools, accusing it of ideological bias. The ABA accredits nearly 200 schools; its approval can determine whether graduates may take the bar exam and whether schools qualify for federal aid. The recommendation is not yet final.
But this isn’t happening in isolation. Trump has targeted major law firms for representing clients or causes he dislikes, using executive orders to threaten contracts, security clearances and access to federal buildings. Federal courts struck down orders against Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, WilmerHale and Susman Godfrey as unconstitutional. One judge warned the message was essentially: lawyers must “stick to the party line, or else.”
The administration and its allies have also repeatedly attacked judges who rule against them, while the ABA has publicly defended judicial independence, lawyers’ professional independence and equal enforcement of ethics rules for government attorneys.
That makes the attack on ABA accreditation more than a fight over “wokeness.” Law firms represent people challenging the government. Judges restrain presidents who exceed their authority. The ABA defends the independence of both.
One by one, Trump is going after the institutions capable of telling a president the most important word in a constitutional democracy: NO.
