The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has formally rejected calls from law deans, recent law graduates and the state’s largest bar associations to adopt an emergency diploma privilege amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an Aug. 7 letter to Pennsylvania Bar Association president David Schwager, Chief Justice Thomas Saylor said the court is sticking with plans to administer an online bar exam Oct. 5-7 and won’t put in place a diploma privilege that would allow law graduates to become licensed without taking a bar exam—a temporary move Utah, Washington, Oregon and Louisiana have thus far made.