The American Bar Association’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has approved a three-page statement titled “Core Principles and Values of Law School Accreditation.” Adopted at its 25 Aug. meeting in Chicago, the document restates the council’s mission to require rigorous academic programs, shield students from economic exploitation, and protect the public by ensuring lawyer competence while widening access to the profession. The move comes as the ABA’s monopoly over law-school accreditation faces challenges from the Trump administration and from states such as Ohio, Texas and Florida that are reassessing ABA graduation requirements for bar eligibility. At the same session, the council withdrew a contentious proposal that would have doubled the minimum experiential-learning requirement at accredited law schools to 12 upper-level credits of clinics, externships or simulations. Supporters argued the expansion was needed to make graduates practice-ready, while many deans warned it would raise tuition and limit curricular flexibility. The council said it will revisit the issue after further study. The council also extended into spring 2026 the window for law schools to apply for a variance under Standard 503 that permits them to admit up to 100 percent of their incoming classes without an admissions test such as the LSAT. More than a dozen schools have already sought the exemption, signaling a possible shift in long-standing admissions practices.