Debate over Raising the Bar for New York Bar Exam

The New York Court of Appeals has called for more study of a proposal to raise the passing score on the New York bar exam -- a move that critics say will not increase the quality of lawyers but will have a disparate impact on the passage rates of minority lawyers.  The two great choke points for exclusion in the legal profession are law school accreditation/admission and bar exams.  Hence any changes to those standards are inevitably political and provoke the debate over whether exclusion is for quality control or for the protection of the existing guild of lawyers.