Wall Avenue Journal Op-Ed:  The New Bar Examination Places DEI Over Competence, by Jay Mitchell (Justice, Alabama Supreme Court docket):

The bar examination is about to get a nationwide overhaul. The Nationwide Convention of Bar Examiners, or NCBE, which creates and administers the uniform bar examination, plans to roll out a revamped model of the bar examination, which it calls the “NextGen” examination, in 2026. After attending the NCBE’s annual assembly this month, I’ve critical considerations about how this check will have an effect on regulation college students, regulation colleges and the authorized occupation. …

[P]erhaps the largest concern is the NCBE’s use of the NextGen examination to advance its “range, equity and inclusion” agenda. Two of the group’s said goals are to “work towards larger fairness” by “eliminat[ing] any features of our exams that might contribute to efficiency disparities” and to “promote larger range and inclusion within the authorized occupation.” The NCBE reinforces this message by touting its “organization-wide efforts to make sure that range, equity, and inclusion pervade its check services.”

What does all this imply—and the way does it have any relation to the regulation? Based mostly on the variety workshop on the NCBE convention, it means placing appreciable emphasis on examinees’ race, intercourse, gender id, nationality and different identity-based traits. The concept appears to be that any variations in group outcomes should be eradicated—even when the one technique to obtain this purpose is to water down the check. On prime of all that, an American Civil Liberties Union consultant offered convention attendees with a lecture on criminal-justice reform wherein he argued that states ought to reduce or overlook would-be attorneys’ convictions for varied prison offenses in deciding whether or not to confess them to the bar.

None of that is encouraging. It shouldn’t matter who you might be or the place you come from—when you can show minimal competency on the bar examination and meet a state’s character-and-fitness necessities, you have to be allowed to observe regulation. In case you can’t, you shouldn’t be given a license to deal with the authorized affairs of others. The bar examination ought to check the regulation straight—with out respect to ideology and on a race- and sex-blind foundation.

Josh BLackman (South Texas; Google Scholar), Justice Mitchell (Alabama): The New Bar Examination Places DEI Over Competence:

In recent times, there have been many shifts in how states administer bar exams. One of the crucial important developments has been the enlargement of the Uniform Bar Examination (UBE). The upshot of the UBE is {that a} rating is “moveable.” Somebody who receives a passing rating in a single state can switch that rating to a different state. The most important draw back, in my opinion no less than, is that the UBE eliminates the requirement to know any state-specific regulation. …

Thus far, 40+ jurisdictions have adopted the UBE, together with my residence state of Texas. And that quantity will ultimately method 50, as states with out the UBE place their regulation college students at a aggressive drawback. The enchantment of portability trumped the enchantment of attorneys truly realizing the regulation of the state wherein they’re going to observe. It’s troublesome to think about any of those states may abandon the UBE, and revert to a state-specific examination.

Now that the states are hooked, the Nationwide Convention of Bar Examiners (NCBE) is making ready the subsequent era of the examination. The “NextGen” Examination, as it’s recognized, might be launched in 2026. The 1Ls beginning within the Fall 2023 will ultimately sit for this examination. Prudent regulation colleges will craft their curriculum, particularly 1L protection, to make sure college students are adequately ready for the NextGen Examination. As ordinary, regulation colleges are attempting to organize for a transferring goal—the main points of that NextGen are usually not but last. And there may be motive for concern.

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2023/05/wsj-op-ed-the-new-nextgen-bar-exam-puts-dei-over-competence.html