Free speech wins in fight over fees for lawyers

The Constitution’s concept of free speech has won in Arizona, where the Goldwater Institute fought a requirement by the bar association that lawyers pay for its lobbying activities, even it involved speech with which they disagreed.

The institute has announced it has “scored a victory for attorneys’ First Amendment rights.”

The Arizona State Bar had been “forcing its members to pay for lobbying activities as a condition of practicing law.”

However, a campaign was launched and just days ago the state supreme court said it was amending the rules “to eliminate the State Bar’s authority to levy membership dues for non-regulatory functions—i.e., activities that have nothing to do with the regulation of the legal profession.”

The institute said it had launched a petition to the court urging the justices to bring their rules in line with constitutional speech protections.

“After all, both the U.S. Constitution and Arizona Constitution protect the freedom of association, ensuring the government cannot compel anyone to fund ideologies they oppose as a condition of earning a living,” the institute said.

“Yet numerous states force lawyers to join bar associations and to pay dues that subsidize the bar’s activities, which often are politically slanted and unrelated to the practice of law. For example, the State Bar of Arizona spends significant time and money on a magazine called Arizona Attorney, which publishes issues dedicated to the arts and general wellness. The Bar has also engaged in lobbying activities and has taken positions on legislative proposals.”

The new provision now will ban the bar association from “engaging in any lobbying activities,” the report said.

“In fact, it may only conduct activities ‘necessarily or reasonably incurred for the purpose of regulating the legal profession or improving the quality of legal services available to people of the State of Arizona,'” according to the court’s changes.

The institute noted, “Focusing the bar on regulatory functions will help improve the quality of legal services and access to justice for all Arizonans.”