Fewer Blacks and Mexican-Americans Being Admitted into Law Schools Even Though Grades, LSAT Test Scores Rise

Fewer blacks and Mexican-Americans being admitted into law schools in U.S., even though their grade-point averages and LSAT test scores are up.

According to a study conducted by Columbia Law School professor Conrad Johnson,  fewer blacks are being admitted into law schools across this country. A New York Times article about the study states that while law schools added about 3,000  seats for first year students from 1993 to 2008, the percentage of black and Mexican-American law students fell during that period. The study results are particularly troubling is that even though the groups admitted had higher grade point averages and higher test scores on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), which are very close to those of their white counterparts, blacks and Mexican-Americans are increasingly being shut out of law schools.

The number of black and Mexican-American students applying to law school has been relatively constant, or growing slightly, for two decades. But from 2003 to 2008, 61 percent of black applicants and 46 percent of Mexican-American applicants were denied acceptance at all of the law schools to which they applied, compared with 34 percent of white applicants.

“What’s happening, as the American population becomes more diverse, is that the lawyer corps and judges are remaining predominantly white,” said John Nussbaumer, associate dean of Thomas M. Cooley Law School’s campus in Auburn Hills, Mich., which enrolls an unusually high percentage of African-American students.

The Columbia study found that among the 46,500 law school matriculants in the fall of 2008, there were 3,392 African-Americans, or 7.3 percent, and 673 Mexican-Americans, or 1.4 percent. Among the 43,520 matriculants in 1993, there were 3,432 African-Americans, or 7.9 percent, and 710 Mexican-Americans, or 1.6 percent. The study, whose findings are detailed at the Web site A Disturbing Trend in Law School Diversity, relied on the admission council’s minority categories, which track Mexican-Americans separately from Puerto Ricans and Hispanic/Latino students. Source: NY Times

The findings of the study are, indeed, very troubling, though it offered no good explanation for the disparity. To article continues http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/education/07law.html