Law schools must adopt free speech policies, after ABA passes rule

 Law schools must now adopt free speech policies in order to maintain their accreditation from the American Bar Association, following a key vote by the organization on Monday.

The ABA’s House of Delegates approved a new requirement that law schools develop and publish policies that “encourage and support the free expression of ideas.” Those policies must protect the rights of faculty, staff and students to communicate controversial or unpopular ideas and safeguard robust debate, demonstrations or protests.

They must also forbid disruptive activities that hinder free expression or substantially interfere with law school functions or activities.

The ABA’s law school accreditation rules have long protected the academic freedom of faculty, but this is first time they address free speech for the entire law school community.

The change comes after several high-profile incidents at elite law schools where student disrupted speakers and amid campus tensions over conflict over Israel’s war with Hamas.

Stanford University officials apologized to 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan after students disrupted his remarks to the campus Federalist Society chapter in March. The law school also mandated free speech training for students.

Yale Law School said it bolstered its commitment to free speech after a group of students in March 2022 disrupted a campus discussion with Kristen Waggoner, president of conservative religious rights group Alliance Defending Freedom. That incident prompted two federal judges to later say they would not hire clerks from Yale.

The ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar adopted the new free speech rule in November after receiving a wealth of public comments largely in support of the change. But the new requirement was not final until the House of Delegates, which is the ABA’s policymaking body, approved it.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/law-schools-must-adopt-free-speech-policies-after-aba-passes-rule-2024-02-05/

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