Racial diversity among law students declined by as much as 17% in the wake of state affirmative action bans over the past 28 years, a new study has found, with a reduction of up to 47% at top law schools.
The findings in the study by a trio of law professors from Yale, New York and Northwestern universities offers potential insights on the impact the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision prohibiting colleges and universities from considering race in admissions, the study said.
The law professors analyzed law school admissions data from 1980 to 2021 with a focus on the racial makeup of student bodies. In additional to national figures, they examined admissions data from 23 public law schools in the 12 states that enacted affirmative action prohibitions beginning in 1996, including California, Michigan and Arizona.
Law student diversity fell by at least 10% and as much as 17% afterward at those schools, with Black and Hispanic students accounting for nearly all of the decline.
Law schools ranked among the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report saw the largest diversity declines after affirmative action bans, with reductions of 36% to 47%, the study found.
The top 20 schools included in that analysis were the University of California, Berkeley School of Law; the University of Michigan Law School; the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law; and the University of Texas School of Law. The study does not break out diversity trends at those individual campuses, and none of those four schools immediately provided comment on Monday.
The study also found that the national law student population has diversified at pace with the United States' changing demographics. But the total proportion of minority law students has yet to catch up with the nation’s overall diversity, which is now 40% non-white according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The researchers found that minority law students have been “consistently underrepresented” in 80% to 90% of entering law school classes. Black and Hispanic students have long been underrepresented when compared with their share of the population, while Asian students have been overrepresented, according to the study.
It’s not yet clear how the national affirmative action ban from the Supreme Court decision will impact law school enrollment because schools are still in the process of admitting their first class under the prohibition.
This year’s applicant pool is on track to be the most diverse on record, according to data from the Law School Admission Council, which suggests that the Supreme Court’s ruling has not dissuaded minorities from pursuing legal careers. The current number of Black applicants is up more than 6% compared with a year ago, while Hispanic applicants are up more than 8%, council data show.
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