Opinion ID: 1439390
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Brief of the District of Columbia Bar

Text: One concomitant of the extensive District of Columbia court reorganization decreed by Congress in 1970 was the creation by this court of what is generally referred to as a unified bar. Acting under the authority of D.C. Code 1973, § 11-2501, this court adopted a number of rules, one of which made membership in the District of Columbia Bar compulsory for all lawyers admitted to practice in this jurisdiction. This is in contrast to the nature of the long-established Bar Association of the District of Columbia (and a number of other bar associations in this jurisdiction), in which membership is voluntary. The Public Defender Service (PDS) sought reconsideration en banc of the division's decision. Amicus curiae briefs were tendered on behalf of both the District of Columbia Bar and the Bar Association of the District of Columbia. [2] The government, represented by attorneys who themselves are obliged to be members of the unified bar, vigorously opposed the filing of the brief tendered on behalf of the District of Columbia Bar, contending that the unified bar may not, consistently with the First and Fifth Amendments, and without creating significant issues of conflict of interests, take partisan positions upon matters being litigated in the District of Columbia courts to which it is not a party. [3] There is no doubt that the constitutional problems presented by the submission of an amicus brief purportedly expressing the position of the total membership of a compulsory bar on a question to be decided by this court are serious ones. See, e. g., Lathrop v. Donohue, 367 U.S. 820, 81 S.Ct. 1826, 6 L.Ed.2d 1191 (1961), particularly the dissenting opinions of Mr. Justice Black and Mr. Justice Douglas at pp. 865 and 877, 81 S.Ct. 1826, 6 L.Ed.2d 1191, respectively. In considering the petition for reconsideration en banc in this case, a majority of the court concluded that it is unnecessary to resolve those problems now. Accordingly, it was decided to accept the brief as one filed on behalf of the Board of Governors of the unified bar. The constitutional issues concerning the filing of a brief supposedly representing the position of the entire bar are ancillary to the basic question now before us, and our decision to refrain from resolving them at this time was neither abstruse nor unique. [4] See, e. g., United States v. Thirty-seven Photographs, 402 U.S. 363, 369, 91 S.Ct. 1400, 28 L.Ed.2d 822 (1971).