News
Constitutional Law
Mar. 1, 2002
Arizona Lawyer Sues California State Bar to Vote
LOS ANGELES - An Arizona lawyer who also is admitted to practice in California is suing the State Bar of California for the right to vote in State Bar elections here and run for the Board of Governors.
The suit asks the U.S. District Court in San Francisco to declare sections of the Business and Professions Code unconstitutional because they restrict voting in elections for the bar Board of Governors to lawyers whose "principal offices for the practice of law" are in California.
The suit, to be filed today on behalf of Louis J. Hoffman of Scottsdale, Ariz., asserts those code sections violate the Equal Protection, Free Speech and Free Association Clauses of the federal and state constitutions, among others.
In seeking a preliminary injunction against the bar to block enforcement of the statutes, Hoffman and his attorneys assert that the right to vote is fundamental, and the state can restrict that right only on a showing of "compelling need." That need must meet the "strict scrutiny" test, and a restriction based on a voter's residence does not meet that standard.
The suit, Hoffman v. State Bar, will be filed in the Northern District of California today, according to Stephen R. Barnett, one of Hoffman's attorneys. Barnett said his attorney service tried to file the suit Thursday, but the court clerk's office was too busy.
Barnett, a professor at Boalt Hall, has been a regular critic of the State Bar and the way it governs itself. Last year, he won concessions from the bar to the rules governing how candidates for the Board of Governors may campaign.
Bar officials had not seen the new suit Thursday. However, State Bar President Karen S. Nobumoto said litigation "is the most expensive means to pursue this issue." She said Barnett should have asked a bar committee to recommend reforms.
Hoffman, a patent lawyer who said he also has an interest in election law, said he had noticed that he never received materials about Board of Governors elections, including ballots.
He said that, when he e-mailed questions about the issue to bar officers, he received no response. A letter he wrote to the California Bar Journal, however, drew a response from a bar staff member, who told him about the two code sections, Business and Professions Code Sections 6018 and 6015.
His letter also attracted Barnett's interest.
Also working with Barnett on the suit are Ephraim Margolin and Arthur Brunwasser of San Francisco.
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Don Debenedictisn
Daily Journal Staff Writer
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