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Diversity

Conservative group sues ABA over Legal Opportunity Scholarship Fund program

By Debra Cassens Weiss

April 17, 2025, 12:36 pm CDT

A group led by a conservative activist has filed a lawsuit alleging that an ABA scholarship program engages in “blatant discrimination” in violation of federal law.

The April 12 suit filed by the American Alliance for Equal Rights, a nonprofit organization, says the scholarships are contractual in nature, and their restrictions on eligibility violate Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act, which bans discrimination in contracting.

The ABA is represented by Jenner & Block, one of the law firms targeted in a punitive executive order by President Donald Trump, Bloomberg Law reports. Jenner & Block has filed a suit challenging the order against it.

The suit by conservative activist Edward Blum’s group targets the ABA’s Legal Opportunity Scholarship Fund, which awards $15,000 scholarships to select incoming law students. Applicants must be members of underrepresented racial or ethnic minorities, such as Black/African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans and Asian/Pacific Islanders, according to the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

“Even if the scholarship did not flatly exclude whites on its face,” the suit says, “the scholarship discriminates against whites in application and by design.”

The suit seeks a declaration that the scholarships violate Section 1981, an injunction barring the ABA from considering race or ethnicity in the program, an order to reopen the application process using neutral criteria, and nominal damages.

Another organization that Blum created, Students for Fair Admissions, won a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2023 that struck down race-conscious admissions programs in higher education.

The American Alliance for Equal Rights is represented by Lawfair and Consovoy McCarthy.

The goal of the new suit, Blum said in a statement, “is not to eliminate ABA’s scholarships but to ensure they are based on legitimate criteria, such as financial need or merit, rather than race.”

The ABA does not comment on active litigation, according to Jim Walsh, the chief communications officer and associate executive director of the ABA.

Publications covering the suit include Law.com, Law360, Reuters and Bloomberg Law.

See also:

Activist who succeeded in ending affirmative action targets law firms’ diversity efforts

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3. Supreme Court will decide whether Oklahoma…

U.S. Supreme Court

Supreme Court will decide whether Oklahoma can fund Catholic charter school

By Debra Cassens Weiss

January 27, 2025, 10:16 am CST

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether the First Amendment allows Oklahoma to fund a Catholic online school as part of its charter school program.

At issue is whether funding the school violates the establishment clause and whether excluding the school from the program violates the free exercise clause, according to cert petitions here and here in the two consolidated cases.

The “blockbuster” cases could “redraw the line between church and state by allowing government to establish and directly fund religious schools for the first time,” the Washington Post reports.

The cert grant follows a 2022 Supreme Court decision holding that Maine could not exclude religious schools from a publicly funded tuition assistance program.

Other publications covering the cert grant include SCOTUSblog, CNN, Law360, Reuters and the New York Times. How Appealing links to additional coverage.

The school, formed by the Oklahoma archdioceses of Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma, would include religious teachings in its lessons. The state’s virtual charter school board approved the school in June 2023.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in June 2024 that funding the school violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause, the Oklahoma Constitution and a state law governing charter schools. The decision said government control over the school made it a state actor.

The ruling was a win for Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who had opposed funding the school. Other Republican office holders had supported the school, however.

Justin Driver, a professor at Yale Law School, told the New York Times that a Supreme Court decision that allows funding “would represent nothing less than a sea change in constitutional law.”

“It is difficult to overstate the significance of this opinion for our constitutional order and the larger American society,” Driver said.

The cases are Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond. The case pages are here and here.

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