House of Delegates Resolutions

The ABA's policymaking body met Aug. 7-8 at the Annual Meeting  in Denver to debate and vote on a wide range of policy issues.

Click on a resolution number to learn more about each proposal and review video of the House debate where available.

Resolution 500
Adopted (video)
Urges all federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal legislative bodies and governmental agencies to adopt laws and policies that protect the safety of all election workers and encourages the support of legislative efforts to protect the safety of all election workers.

Resolution 501
Adopted (video)
Reaffirms 11A108, adopted August 2011, supporting civility in public discourse.

Resolution 502
Adopted (video)
Adopts the Fourteen Principles contained in the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section 2023 Plea Bargain Task Force Report, dated August 2023.

Resolution 503
Adopted
Urges federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal governments to: repeal laws that provide an exception to the prohibition of slavery and involuntary servitude through prison labor, enact legislation that eliminates hard labor as a form of punishment for a crime, and ensure that all prison labor is voluntary, safe, fairly compensated; and amends the Criminal Justice Standards on Treatment of Prisoners (3rd Edition, 2011).

Resolution 504
Adopted
Urges federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal governments to adopt Prosecutor-Initiated Resentencing legislation that permits a court at any time to recall and resentence a person to a lesser sentence upon the recommendation of the prosecutor of the jurisdiction in which the person was sentenced.            

Resolution 505
Withdrawn
Urges the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Judicial Conference of the United States to adopt and implement a rule and procedure by which an attorney would only be required to apply once to practice in federal district court and, once admitted, would be permitted to practice in all federal district courts.

Resolution 506
Adopted (video) 
Urges national, state, local, territorial and tribal law and policy-making bodies to adopt the provisions of the Guardianship Bill of Rights, promulgated by the National Guardianship Network in 2022 and protect the right to Due Process in guardianship proceedings.

Resolution 507
Adopted (video)
Urges federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal governments to amend existing laws and/or enact new laws to provide financial support to tenants of rental housing and urges these governments to provide administrative agencies with adequate financial resources to implement and administer any such provisions.

Resolution 508
Withdrawn
Urges federal, state, local, and tribal governments to restrict the sale, purchase, transfer, servicing, and use of commercial spyware within the United States.

Resolution 509
Adopted (video)
Supports the principle that judicial review of decisions of the Food and Drug Administration to approve drugs be conducted  under a legal standard which takes account of the agency’s scientific expertise, its statutory decisionmaking authority, the procedures established by Congress, and the precedents set by reviewing  courts for exercising  their decision-making authority.

Resolution 510
Withdrawn
Urges Congress to repeal the Comstock Act of 1873.

Resolution 511
Adopted (video)
Urges Congress to enact the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2023 (H.R. 12/S. 701, 118th Congress) or similar legislation to protect patients’ access to abortion care without medically unnecessary restrictions and to protect health care professionals’ ability to provide such care.

Resolution 512
Adopted
Urges the federal, state, and territorial governments in which capital punishment is a possible penalty to take steps to prevent discrimination in capital sentencing based on the race, ethnicity, gender or gender identity of the victim, the defendant, or a combination thereof.

Resolution 513
Adopted (video)
Urges Congress and state, local, territorial and tribal legislatures to adopt or amend laws, regulations, and policies to prohibit discrimination on the basis of caste to protect Dalits and other caste-oppressed communities from discrimination based on caste.

Resolution 514
Adopted (video)
Urges Congress to fund fully the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) at the maximum level that Congress originally authorized, which is 40 percent of a state’s excess costs for educating students with disabilities under the Act.

Resolution 515
Adopted (video)
Urges all state, local, territorial, and tribal governing bodies, education officials, school boards, school districts, and public libraries to advocate for and protect the First Amendment rights of students to access information and ideas in school by eliminating the ban of books in public education and libraries.

Resolution 516
Adopted as Revised (video)
Amends the ABA Guidelines for the Appointment and Use of Special Masters in Federal and State Civil Litigation (“Guidelines”), adopted January 2019 (Resolution 100, 19M100), by retitling the Guidelines, “ABA Guidelines for the Appointment and Use of Court-Appointed Neutrals in Federal and State Civil Litigation” and replacing the terms “Special Master” and “Master” with “Court-Appointed Neutral.”

Resolution 517
Adopted as Revised
Adopts the Model Rule on Court-Appointed Neutrals dated August 2023, and urges jurisdictions to adopt the Model Rule on Court-Appointed Neutrals dated August 2023.

Resolution 518
Adopted (video)
Endorses the use of negotiation and settlement processes to resolve tribal reserved water right claims, provided the concerned tribes elect to pursue such processes, as well as the availability of adequate financial and technical resources as an important precondition for achieving successful settlements, and specifically urges Congress and the Administration to support these settlement processes.

Resolution 519
Adopted (video)
Supports efforts by state, local, and territorial legislative bodies, judiciaries, bar associations, and other relevant entities to ensure that bar admission is not denied based solely on immigration status, cognizant of and in compliance with other federal laws regarding the employment of undocumented immigrants.   

Resolution 520
Adopted (video)
Urges Congress to enact legislation permitting and encouraging both federal and private student loan lenders to create more favorable terms for borrowers and urges Congress to incentivize private student loan lenders to create more favorable terms and protections for borrowers, like those available to federal student loan borrowers.

Resolution 521
Adopted (video)
Urges federal courts to eliminate case assignment mechanisms that predictably assign cases to a single United States District Judge without random assignment when such cases seek to enjoin or mandate the enforcement of a state or federal law or regulation and where any party, including intervenor(s), in such a case objects to the initial, non-random assignment within a reasonable time; and urges that, in such situations, case assignments are made randomly and on a district-wide rather than division-wide basis.

Resolution 522
Adopted as Revised (video)
Urges law schools to include Indigenous People's Day as a recognized holiday in place of Columbus Day and to adopt calendars that reflect Indigenous People's Day as a holiday.

Resolution 523
Adopted (video)
Urges legal employers to evaluate law students holistically during the OnCampus Interview process by considering more than a student’s grade point average and class rank.

Resolution 524
Adopted as Revised (video)
Urges federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal governments in the United States to condemn Islamophobia; urges Congress to enact legislation that combats and eliminates Islamophobia, such as H.R.  5665 117th Congress (2021-2022) and S. 3384 117th Congress (2021-2022); and urges the United States and all other United Nations Member States to adopt legislation and pursue policies and measures that combat and eliminate Islamophobia.

Resolution 11-1
Adopted
Amends §§2.2(f), 6.4(e), 7.2 , 7.3 9.2(a), and 9.2(b), of the Association’s Constitution  to: 1) replace the term “minority” throughout with “racially or ethnically diverse”; 2) replace “LGBT” with “LGBTQ+” throughout; and 3) update references to sexual orientation and gender identity by adding “gender identity” where “sexual orientation” alone is referenced and amends §26.1(d) of the Association’s Bylaws to: 1) replace the term “minority” throughout with “racially or ethnically diverse”; 2) replace “LGBT” with “LGBTQ+”.

Resolution 11-2
Adopted (video)
Amends §§6.4(a) and 7.3 of the Constitution of the American Bar Association to synchronize the eligibility of a young lawyer House of Delegates member and a young lawyer member-at-large on the Board of Governors with the more inclusive eligibility of membership in the ABA Young Lawyers Division.

Resolution 11-3
Adopted
Amends §31.7 of the Association’s Bylaws to update the jurisdiction of the Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services to incorporate the responsibilities of the Standing Committee on Group and Prepaid Legal Services.

Resolution 11-4
Adopted
Amends §31.7 of the Association’s Bylaws to dissolve the Standing Committee on Group and Prepaid Legal Services.

Resolution 11-5
Withdrawn
Amends §31.7 of the Association’s Bylaws to update the jurisdiction of the Standing Committee on Technology and Information Services to modernize and adapt to the changes in priorities of the ABA.

Resolution 400
Adopted as Revised (video)
Encourages federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments, and law schools to create and fund fully a rural practice loan forgiveness program.

Resolution 401
Adopted
federal, state, territorial and tribal bar licensing admissions authorities to require disclosure of an applicant’s activities protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution only if such activities resulted in initiation of criminal, civil, academic or disciplinary proceedings against the applicant.

Resolution 402
Adopted
Urges all state and territorial continuing legal education accrediting agencies to avoid denying the accreditation or approval of continuing legal education programs, courses, or other activities based on the viewpoints or positions taken by the presenters or the sponsoring organization, or the method the sponsoring organization employs to select presenters, provided that the program, course, or activity otherwise meets the minimum standards for accreditation or approval.            

Resolution 403
Adopted
Urges all law schools to adopt policies, consistent with the ABA Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools, to permit students to obtain academic credit or monetary compensation for their participation as editors of law reviews and other academic law journals.

Resolution 600
Adopted
Grants approval to three paralegal education programs, reapproval to 14 programs, withdraws the approval of two programs at the requests of the institutions, and extends the term of approval to 51 programs.

Resolution 601
Adopted
Grants reaccreditation to the Truck Accident Law program of the National Board of Trial Advocacy and extends the term of accreditation of the Legal Professional Liability Law program of the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys until the adjournment of the next House of Delegates  meeting in February 2024.

Resolution 602
Adopted as Revised (video)
Urges the United States Departments of State and Defense to provide written guidelines—which are clear restatements of the current rules under applicable Status of Forces Agreements (SOFAs) and other host country laws—for military spouses and family members who wish to obtain or maintain employment (including telework and virtual employment) while accompanying service members on overseas assignments and for United States-based employers wishing to employ them.

Resolution 603
Adopted (video)
Adopts the revised Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System (“Principles”), dated August 2023, including black letter and commentary, and recommends that each jurisdiction swiftly assess its compliance with the Principles and implement any necessary legal and policy changes where deficiencies may exist.

Resolution 604
Adopted (video)
Encourages respectful use of language (including pronouns, honorifics, salutations, and titles) consistent with a person’s gender identity within law schools, the bar admissions process, the legal profession, and the justice system generally; and urges all law schools and bar admissions entities to include self-reporting options for gender-inclusive pronouns, honorifics, salutations, and titles in admissions applications, registration portals, and other submission forms.

Resolution 605
Adopted (video)
Supports enactment of the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act (H.R. 2955 and S. 1351, 118th Congress) or similar legislation that aims to study and prevent child abuse in youth residential programs, and supports the adoption of state, local, territorial and tribal legislation that facilitate uniform standards for preventing child abuse in residential facilities.

Resolution 606
Adopted (video)
Encourages state, local, territorial, and tribal governments to reject proposed or repeal existing laws and policies that target and harmfully discriminate against transgender people, especially youth.            

Resolution 607
Adopted
Adopts the revised American Bar Association Election Administration Guidelines and Commentary (“Guidelines and Commentary”), dated August 2023; urges all election officials to ensure the integrity of the election process through the adoption, use, and enforcement of the Guidelines and Commentary; and urges that federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments provide election authorities with adequate funding to implement the Guidelines and Commentary.

Resolution 608
Adopted (video)
Urges Congress to enact legislation establishing   a duty to implement reasonable security for organization  data, products, and systems; and urges Congress and federal departments and agencies to: seek harmonization and consistency with existing laws, regulations, and cybersecurity frameworks,  provide incentives to developers of existing and emerging digital technologies and to all entities to monitor and enhance their cybersecurity protections and increase their resilience against cybersecurity threats, and to provide resources to enable users of digital technologies, products, services, and capabilities to take steps to enhance their cybersecurity protections and increase their resilience against cybersecurity threats.

Resolution 609
Adopted (video)
Urges lawyers to keep informed about new and emerging technologies and protect digital products, systems, and data from unauthorized access, use, and modification.

Resolution 610
Adopted (video)
Urges law schools to incorporate cybersecurity and emerging technologies into their curricula.

Resolution 300
Adopted
in the action of the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar in making amendments dated August 2023 to Standards 307 (Studies, Activities, and Field Placements Outside the United States), 313 (Degree Programs in Addition to J.D.), and 509 (Required Disclosures) and Rules 13 (Actions on Determinations of Noncompliance with a Standard) and 32(Membership of Appeals Panel and Proceeding Panel)of the ABA Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools.

Resolution 301
Adopted
Concurs in the action of the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar in making amendments dated August 2023 to Definitions 7 (Distance Education Course) and 8 (Distance Education J.D. Program); Standards 105 (Acquiescence for Substantive Change in Program or Structure), 306( Distance Education), 311( Academic Program and Academic Calendar), and 511(Verification of Student Identity); and Rule 24( Application for Acquiescence in Substantive Change) of the ABA Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools. 

Resolution 10A
Adopted
Recommends that certain Association policies that pertain to public issues and are 10 years old or older be archived.

Resolution 10B
Adopted
Recommends that certain Association policies that pertain to public issues that were adopted in 2003 which were previously considered for archiving but retained be archived.

Resolution 100
Adopted as Revised (video)
Amends the Black Letter and Comments to Model Rule of Professional Conduct 1.16 (Declining or Terminating Representation).

Resolution 200
Adopted (video)
Urges leaders in the judicial branch to study the impact violent or traumatic incidents have on the mental or emotional health and wellness of judges, their staff, and their families and recommend steps to improve their safety and security and ensure their mental wellness.

Resolution 201
Adopted
Endorses the Hague Declaration on Equal Access to Justice for All by 2030.