Is that legal? Can they do that? Those are good questions to ask of persons in positions of authority in the public or the private sector, especially now in this era of accelerating demands for political correctness, ever more narrowly defined. No sooner do you get used to the new “rules,” then the rules change again. No matter how hard you try to comply, you soon find yourself once more beyond the new pale.
Throw in a hysterically over-hyped virus and its opportunistic use by imperious state and local officials eager to assert and exercise powers that don’t belong to them, and you’ve got the makings of a serious assault on individual rights and civil liberties.
At some point, you have to fight back, because the rule-makers and the power-grabbers won’t stop on their own. The more concessions made to them, the more they ask for. Eventually, they feel confident enough to do what they please without fear of challenge.
Not long ago, three Texas attorneys filed suit against the Texas State Bar over mandatory dues, alleging the Bar violates their First Amendment rights by engaging in “extensive political and ideological activities,” such as diversity initiatives and legislative programs.
State Attorney General Ken Paxton has also weighed in on the State Bar overreach, most recently urging the group to discontinue consideration of American Bar Association Model Rule 8.4(g), which declares it “professional misconduct for a lawyer to,” among other things, “engage in conduct that the lawyer knows or reasonably should know is harassment or discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or socioeconomic status in conduct related to the practice of law.”
Who defines “harassment” and “discrimination,” not to mention the composition of the purported victim groups? Ah, there’s the rub.
Does the Bar have the right to override the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and tell its members what they can and cannot say? Of course not. And their members know that. After all, they’re lawyers.
Some members are already suing the Bar to prevent infringement of their rights. Every attorney in Texas should join that fight.