By: John Nussbaumer
Abstract by: R. Banks Bruce
Since the 1960s, African-Americans, together with other
minorities, have climbed a rocky slope towards civil equality.
However, despite concerted efforts made by American law schools,
African-Americans have actually fallen backwards in recent
statistical studies. Over the past 10 years, the number of
applications, acceptances, and degrees received by
African-Americans has decreased. These discouraging numbers can be
attributed to law school admission practices and law school
accreditation practices.
Recently, St. John’s University School of Law hosted a national
conference to examine the relationship between law school rankings
and minority admissions. The participants came to the consensus
that law schools were attempting to raise their competitive rank by
raising their 25th percentile Law School Admissions Test (“LSAT”)
scores. However, the Law School Admissions Counsel has specifically
warned of the danger in overemphasizing the LSAT in admission
decisions. An over emphasis on the LSAT can and does have a
disparate impact on African-American student enrollment.
Officially, there is no minimum LSAT imposed by the law school
accreditation committee. However, law schools do feel pressure from
the accreditation committee to keep their student body’s scores
above 141. This de facto cut-off score excludes many capable
students from entering law school who may have succeeded despite a
low LSAT score. Because of this cut-off score, nearly half of all
African-American applicants are denied admission.
Regardless of whether or not law schools have purposefully
administered these discriminatory practices, changes must be made.
Admissions practices that have a disparate impact on
African-Americans must be prohibited, especially those that misuse
the LSAT. It seems clear that without these changes law schools
will leave themselves open to lawsuits based on racial
discrimination.