Pressure from a Columbus-based policy group has forced five university-based Ohio law schools to stop race-based scholarship or internship programs.

The Buckeye Institute announced law schools at Cleveland State, Ohio State, Akron, Cincinnati and Toledo stopped the programs after it announced an investigation.

“Federal law and the U.S. Constitution prohibit discrimination based on race,” said David C. Tryon, director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute. "Although the goals of these programs were laudable, it is a victory for the Constitution and the rule of law that all of the law schools ended these discriminatory programs or opened them to all applicants.”

The changes come after The Buckeye Institute questioned race-based programs it said in March violated federal law in four Ohio bar associations, three law firms and the five public law schools.

The Buckeye Institute said in a letter to each organization that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision ruled all racial discrimination is unlawful, no matter the motivation. It also said several recent lawsuits have successfully challenged minority programs like the ones in Ohio.

Letters of investigation were sent to the Akron, Cleveland Metro, Columbus and Toledo bar associations. Questions were also sent to the law firms of Eastman & Smith, Reminger Co., and IceMiller, along with the university law schools.

The letters to the bar associations question a minority clerkship program in Akron, along with the Cleveland Legal Collaborative, the Louis Stokes Scholarship Program, and the 1L Clerkship Program in Cleveland.

Those letters came less than two weeks after the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty sent a letter to the University of Wisconsin asking it to stop prioritizing by race when selecting several awards and fellowships.

The Wisconsin group is also questioning similar race-based programs or awards at UW-Green Bay, UW-Parkside and UW-Whitewater.

In July, the institute asked for similar records from the University of Michigan School of Law, which was denied. It continued to push for the public records with letters in October.