The Bar Exam Should Join LSAT in The Waste Bin, Says Yale Law Professor

In April 2022, a committee of the American Bar Association (ABA) proposed a major change to law schools’ admission policies by no longer requiring prospective students to take the Law School Admission Test (LSAT).

Stephen L. Carter, professor of law at Yale University and a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, said the push to eliminate the LSAT has merit and there’s no reason to stop there.

“The recommendation to eliminate the admissions testing requirement comes amidst cascading charges that reliance on the Law School Admission Test hurts minority applicants,” Carter said. “The proposition is sharply contested by many friends of diversity. Some find it stigmatizing to be told they can’t do as well on the test as White applicants. But given that the case against the test appears to have persuaded the wordily named Council of the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, let’s assume for the sake of argument that the LSAT does indeed represent an unfair barrier to entry to the legal profession. Why doesn’t the same argument apply to the bar examination?”

According to first-time statistics released by the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar in 2021, white test-takers were more likely to pass the bar exam than test-takers of other races and ethnicities.

Carter argued that “if the LSAT is a problem because of its supposed effect on diversity, maybe the bar examination should join it in the waste bin. Or the exam could be optional, leaving employers to decide whether they want to require it.”