Opinion ID: 1247623
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Court's Consideration of Integrated Bar Associations

Text: In a companion case to Street, supra, 367 U.S. 740 ( Lathrop v. Donohue (1960) 367 U.S. 820 [6 L.Ed.2d 1191, 81 S.Ct. 1826]), the United States Supreme Court considered a challenge by members of the Wisconsin State Bar to an order of the Wisconsin Supreme Court requiring all attorneys to become bar members. The plaintiff, a Wisconsin attorney, had paid his dues under protest and sued for a refund, claiming that the state bar used his dues to engage in political activities which he opposed and that, by coercing him to join the bar and support its political activities, the Wisconsin Supreme Court order integrating the state bar was unconstitutional. The United States Supreme Court concluded that by integrating the bar the Wisconsin Legislature and Supreme Court had advanced the public interest `by maintaining high standards of conduct in the legal profession and by aiding in the efficient administration of justice' ( Lathrop, supra, at pp. 831-832 [6 L.Ed.2d at p. 1199]). Relying on its analysis in Hanson, supra, 351 U.S. 225, the court stated that the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, in order to further the State's legitimate interests in raising the quality of professional services, may constitutionally require that the costs of improving the profession in this fashion should be shared by the subjects and beneficiaries of the regulatory program, the lawyers, even though the organization created to attain the objective also engages in some legislative activity. ( Lathrop at p. 843 [6 L.Ed.2d at p. 1205].) Several points underlying this holding have particular significance to the instant case. First, it is significant that the court considered the regulatory function of the Wisconsin State Bar to be the primary justification for the compulsory membership requirement. (See Schneyer, The Incoherence of the Unified Bar Concept: Generalizing from the Wisconsin Case (1983) Am. B. Found. Res. J. 1, 54-55 [Basically, Brennan saw the state bar as a public agency created to fund and administer regulatory or governmental programs.].) Second, the court employed language reminiscent of its commerce clause decisions. This suggests that the state's regulatory or police power, similar in scope to Congress' commerce clause power (see ante, fn. 2), was the actual source of authority underlying integration of the bar. (Accord Herron v. State Bar (1944) 24 Cal.2d 53, 64 [147 P.2d 543].) Both these points emphasize the court's identification of the justifying governmental interest as the advancement of the delivery of quality legal services to the public. Finally, the court implicitly balanced the state's interest in regulating the legal profession with what, in that case, appeared to be a minimal intrusion into the attorneys' associational and speech rights. [3] (Schneyer, The Incoherence of the Unified Bar Concept, supra, at p. 51.) The court managed to avoid the plaintiff's claim that the bar's use of his mandatory dues to support political activities violated the First Amendment by finding the record insufficiently developed in this regard. ( Lathrop, supra, 367 U.S. 820, 845-846 [6 L.Ed.2d 1191, 1206-1207].) It is significant to the case before us, however, that only four of the justices deemed the constitutional issue not ripe for adjudication (Chief Justice Warren and Associate Justices Brennan, Clark and Stewart), while five justices considered the issue to be squarely presented. Of these five, two found the use of objecting members' mandatory dues for political purposes to be constitutional ( id. at p. 865 [6 L.Ed.2d at pp. 1217-1218] [Harlan, J., conc. in judgment, joined by Frankfurter, J.]), two found such use to be unconstitutional ( id. at p. 871 [6 L.Ed.2d at p. 1221] [Black, J., dis.]; id. at pp. 884-885 [8 L.Ed.2d at pp. 1228-1229] [Douglas, J., dis.]), and one considered the practice of law to be a special privilege and thus not a right protected by the First Amendment. [4] ( Id. at p. 865 [6 L.Ed.2d at p. 1218] [Whittaker, J., conc. in result].) Moreover, because the Lathrop majority explicitly detailed the particular facts it would have needed to address the First Amendment question ( id. at pp. 846-847 [8 L.Ed.2d at p. 1207]), it appears that, had the record been sufficiently developed in these regards, the entire court would have agreed that the First Amendment issue was squarely presented. Indeed, the court subsequently characterized Lathrop by stating that [t]he only proposition about which a majority of the Court in Lathrop agreed was that the constitutional issues should be reached. ( Abood, supra, 431 U.S. at p. 233, fn. 29 [52 L.Ed.2d at p. 283].) Thus, at the very least, Lathrop, supra, 367 U.S. 820, supports the proposition that use of the mandatory bar dues of objecting members for political and ideological purposes presents a clear constitutional question. Subsequent cases have established that even the generalized allegations found wanting in Lathrop are sufficient to raise the First Amendment challenge. (See Abood, supra, 431 U.S. at p. 241 [52 L.Ed.2d at p. 288]; Arrow v. Dow (10th Cir.1981) 636 F.2d 287, 289.) The majority in this case avoids the constitutional issue by labeling the State Bar as a governmental agency, and concluding that a governmental agency may use unrestricted revenue ... for any purposes within its authority. (Maj. opn, at p. 1167, italics added.) What the majority fails to recognize, however, is that under federal constitutional law the use of objecting members' mandatory dues for political or ideological purposes is not unrestricted. Abood, supra, 431 U.S. 209, and its progeny make this abundantly clear as I shall further explain in the following section. Further, the majority's effort to distinguish the California State Bar from the integrated bars of other states, including Wisconsin, whose courts have uniformly applied the Abood holding to analyze the question of use of mandatory bar dues (see post, pp. 1180-1181), is unpersuasive. Simply saying that none of these states' bars rest upon a constitutional and statutory structure comparable to that of the California State Bar does not explain why such a distinction renders the California State Bar immune from the First Amendment constraints, while the Wisconsin Bar is not. The United States Supreme Court's decision in Lathrop, supra, 367 U.S. 820, clearly supports the proposition that an integrated bar's use of mandatory dues of objecting members for political or ideological causes is subject to constitutional scrutiny. It was not until the decision in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, supra, 431 U.S. 209, however, that the court explicated the First Amendment issue.