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Amicus Coalition Again Urges Supreme Court To Review Mandatory Bar Dues That Fund Political Speech

For the third time in recent months, the Atlantic Legal Foundation has joined joined the Pacific Legal Foundation, Cato Institute, and Reason Foundation in an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to decide whether a state bar association’s use of mandatory dues to subsidize political activities and ideological speech violates the First Amendment. The certiorari petition in McDonald v. Firth challenges the State Bar of Texas’s use of mandatory member dues to fund that organization’s legislative lobbying and other political or ideological activities. The same coalition of amici has urged the Court to address the issue in connection with the Oklahoma and Oregon bars. In each case, the amicus brief, drafted by Deborah La Fetra, Senior Attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation, argues that compulsory payment of bar dues requires exacting scrutiny under the First Amendment.

Issue Areas:

Individual Liberty

Case:

McDonald v. Firth, No. 21-800 (Supreme Court) (petition stage)
Read the Amicus Brief:
Question(s) Presented:

Does the First Amendment prohibit a State from compelling attorneys to join and fund a state bar association that engages in extensive political and ideological activities?

Status:

The petition for a writ of certiorari is pending.

Contact:

For additional information contact Lawrence S. Ebner, ALF’s Executive Vice President & General Counsel.

Date Originally Posted: January 16, 2022

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