Opinion ID: 1263060
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: 1st Amendment speech and associational freedoms

Text: I join the court today in condemning the use of a lawyer's advertising or competitive activity within a county as a permissible gauge for a nonresident legal practitioner's inclusion into a pool for criminal defense assignment in a county other than that in which he or she maintains a professional office. No lawyer should be targeted for a criminal defense assignment as a punitive sanction for exercising his/her 1st Amendment freedom to advertise anywhere within the state. To sanction discretion that would enable a judge to single out for assignment out-of-county lawyers who seek business dehors their professional residence would have an impermissibly chilling effect on the legal practitioner's 1st Amendment right to advertise. [33] I would allow an assigned practitioner to exercise his/her 1st Amendment right to associate with other counsel in handling a criminal defense or other public service duty. [34] Any lawyer  whether volunteer, assigned or hired  should be free to associate with specialists or other counsel in providing defense services. [35]