You’d think a group of people could define “nonpartisanship” and agree on how to implement and maintain it: by consciously making an effort to be impartial and unbiased, not favoring one party or faction over another, trying to be moderate or middle of the road on the issues of the day and not lean one way or the other, perhaps even establishing a list of topics that the group chooses not to take positions on.
Members of professional associations that are officially nonpartisan are going to have their own opinions, of course, but they’re expected not to try to enshrine those opinions in the groups’ policies. Members have every right to feel aggrieved when such associations seem to take sides. Conservative members, for instance, would be justified in challenging perceived liberal inclinations, as would liberals were the situation reversed.
The problem today, though, is that many political positions once considered far left are now deemed mainstream, at least by liberals. Anyone who bothers to think about this phenomenon can come up with half a dozen glaring examples, but woe betide the person who points this out and cites those examples!
Tony McDonald, Joshua Hammer, and Mark Pulliam are tired of this nonsensical double standard. Forced to pay dues to the Texas State Bar and watch with resentment as the group drifts ever leftward, using money extracted from members to promote pet liberal projects, these three attorneys filed suit against the Bar, alleging First Amendment rights violations and citing U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Janus and Fleck.
U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel granted summary judgment to the Bar, but the attorneys have appealed to the Fifth Circuit, arguing that the Bar has “continued to advance a highly ideological and polarizing agenda” and that “[a]bsent this Court’s intervention, the Bar will surely continue to use coerced dues to support those highly controversial and politically charged activities.”
Can the Bar go back to being a strictly professional organization and stay out of politics? Is that too much to ask?