‘Good Riddance’: Pillen Calls for UNL Law to Drop ‘DEI’ Requirements

by John Gage

(Photo credit Matt Johnson)

Governor Jim Pillen called on the University of Nebraska College of Law to drop its “DEI rules” following an announcement by the American Bar Association (ABA) that it was moving to end a requirement for law schools to show a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

“Nebraskans expect—and I demand—that the law school will immediately clear out of its coursework, publications, curricula, and catalogs ALL ‘cross-cultural competence’ and related material implemented as a result of these now-obsolete (and always misguided) ABA rules,” Pillen said in a statement Sunday. “The weak excuse for this DEI creep within Nebraska’s flagship taxpayer-funded university law college no longer exists.”

The ABA had previously suspended its rule in February 2025 after the Trump administration began pushing back against DEI on college campuses. On Friday, the ABA council that deals with law school accreditation voted to end the rule permanently, although it likely will not be until next year when the change officially takes effect.

“Even though I personally agree with [the diversity and inclusion standard] and what it tries to achieve, I think it’s appropriate as an ​accrediting body that we eliminate that standard so we don’t inhibit the diversity of ideas out there in ​various types of legal education environments,” David Brennen, a council member and a former dean ⁠of the University of Kentucky College of Law, said.

Pillen said that the ABA had been acting like an “activist” organization by implementing the rule, which he said was “discriminatory.”

“The activist American Bar Association—which has long since outlived its credibility as an accrediting organization and has a shameful history of smearing constitutional conservatives, including here in Nebraska—has dropped the final remnant of its backward DEI rules for law schools,” he said, adding, “Good riddance.”

In 2017, the ABA received backlash from Nebraska’s elected leaders after it gave Steve Grasz, President Trump’s nominee to the Eighth Circuit, an unanimous “not qualified” rating for his “strongly held social views.”

Conservatives accused the ABA of targeting Grasz because of his work in defending Nebraska’s partial-birth abortion ban as the state’s chief deputy attorney general. The Senate went on to confirm Grasz to his current position as a federal judge on a 50-48 vote.

UNL Law Requires ‘Cross-Cultural’ Courses

The “DEI” rule by the ABA, passed in February 2022, is known as “standard 303(c)” and it required that “a law school shall provide education to law students on bias, cross-cultural competency, and racism.”

UNL Law had several courses that fulfilled the requirement including Law 729: Civil Rights Litigation, Law 680: Employment Discrimination, and Law 629: Prison Law.

Pillen has been aggressive in his stance against DEI efforts in the University of Nebraska system. During his State of the State address this year, he promised to rid “DEI and CRT [critical race theory] from Nebraska’s higher ed system.”

“How destructive would it be if our great University of Nebraska followed the same path that so-called ‘elite’ coastal schools have, embracing pronoun culture, DEI discrimination, antisemitism, and radical critical race theory invasion into curriculum,” Pillen said in his speech. “Nebraska’s higher education system should be a model of true academic freedom, rigor, and race blindness. It should be governed by the same principles that have made this state great, and by doing so it will be a beacon to kids across the country who want to come to a place truly devoted to higher learning.”

The Plains Sentinel has reached out to the University of Nebraska College of Law for comment on the story.

— John Gage is the executive editor of The Plains Sentinel.