📣 ABA May Require Law Schools to Adopt Free Speech Policies

This Friday the American Bar Association (ABA) will vote on a proposed rule that would require all accredited law schools to adopt “written policies that encourage and support the free expression of ideas.”

In a memorandum summarizing the proposed rule, the ABA wrote,

Effective legal education and the development of the law require the free, robust, and uninhibited sharing of ideas reflecting a wide range of viewpoints. Becoming an effective advocate or counselor requires learning how to conduct candid and civil discourse in respectful disagreement with others while advancing reasoned and evidence-based arguments. Concerns about civility and mutual respect, however, do not justify barring discussion of ideas because they are controversial or even offensive or disagreeable to some

The new rule is, no doubt, an attempt to stem the tide of hostility towards conservative speakers at the nation’s law schools.  Earlier this year, Stanford University had to issue a written apology to a U.S. Circuit Court judge after his speech at the school’s Federalist Society was disrupted by protestors.   A similar incident occurred at Yale in 2022 when students interfered with a conservative judge’s speech.  The Yale protest made national news and lead at least two federal court judges to refuse all clerkship positions to the school’s law students.