Schools must be allowed and encouraged to include the experiences of marginalized communities in classrooms, along with access to books and resources reflecting their voices, the ABA says.

In a speech Monday during the 2024 ABA Midyear Meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, ABA Executive Director Alpha M. Brady said she was “humbled and proud” of the journey that led her to taking over leadership in July 2023.

The House of Delegates is urging the United States and other countries to stop human rights violations and genocide involving the Rohingya, a Muslim minority that lived in Myanmar’s Rakhine state for generations until military crackdowns in 2017 forced nearly 1 million to flee to Bangladesh and other surrounding countries.

At the ABA Midyear Meeting, the House of Delegates acknowledged the disproportionate risks of abduction and violence experienced by members of Alaska Native and Native American communities.

The ABA House of Delegates on Monday at the 2024 ABA Midyear Meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, adopted a resolution urging Congress and federal agencies to promote the development and use of methods that aim to replace, reduce and refine the use of animal models in research and testing.

Law schools will now be asked to explicitly protect free speech rights for faculty, students and staff as part of the ABA accreditation process. Though law school faculty have long enjoyed protections for academic freedom, this would be the first accreditation standard to address free speech for the entire community within law schools.

ABA President Mary Smith is urging members to “meet the moment” by helping the next generation of lawyers, protecting democracy and addressing how technology will change the practice of law.

The federal government should better protect immigrant youths, and particularly immigrant youths of color, through the yearslong adjudication of their Special Immigrant Juvenile Status petition and adjustment of their status application to lawful permanent residence, the ABA House of Delegates said.

The ABA House of Delegates on Monday overwhelmingly passed a resolution urging Congress to pass legislation that would prohibit individuals convicted of misdemeanor hate crimes from obtaining firearms.

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to immediately force the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to change its race-conscious admissions policies, less than a year after the court’s conservative majority rejected similar programs at other colleges and universities.