Reaffirming an April 1995 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned sanctions imposed against an Escondido attorney who attached derogatory, gender-based comments from a magazine article to a letter to a female federal prosecutor. U.S. District Judge Alicemarie Stotler sanctioned Frank L. Swan, ordered him to write an apology to assistant U.S. attorney Elana S. Artson, and referred the matter to the Central District's disciplinary committee. During a 1993 tax evasion case, the government persuaded the judge that Swan should be disqualified from representing a client because of a conflict of interest.
Female lawyers are outside the law, cloud the truth and destroy order.
On appeal, Swan argued that Stotler's order unfairly limited his freedom of speech. The panel permitted attorneys for the state of California and the State Bar to intervene upon rehearing.