Opinion ID: 777056
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: analysis

Text: 5 Compulsion to be associated with an organization whose very public campaign proclaims a message one does not agree with is a burden, as is compulsion to pay even one dollar to finance the campaign. We have some sense of Gardner's state of mind and do not fault him for attempting to shed the burdens by asserting his rights under the United States Constitution. But have these rights been infringed? 6 The Supreme Court of the United States has told us that there is some analogy between a bar that, under state law, lawyers must join and a labor union with an agency shop. Keller v. State Bar of Cal., 496 U.S. 1, 12, 110 S.Ct. 2228, 110 L.Ed.2d 1 (1990). It is infringement of the constitutional freedoms of lawyers for a state bar to use their dues to endorse or advance a gun control or nuclear freeze initiative, because these issues are unrelated to the purposes for which the state bar is formed. Id. at 16, 110 S.Ct. 2228. On the other hand, it is not unconstitutional for the state bar to spend its income from its members' dues for the purpose of regulating the legal profession or `improving the quality of the legal service available to the people of the State.' Id. at 14, 110 S.Ct. 2228, quoting Lathrop v. Donohue, 367 U.S. 820, 843, 81 S.Ct. 1826, 6 L.Ed.2d 1191 (1961). 7 As the Supreme Court acknowledged, it is not always easy to discern on which side of the line the activities of a state bar association fall. Id. at 15, 110 S.Ct. 2228. Gardner argues that the State Bar's attempt to improve the public image of Nevada lawyers is a political purpose; that the campaign, as it is addressed to public opinion, is addressed to the most powerful political force in a democracy; that by analogy Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Ass'n, 500 U.S. 507, 111 S.Ct. 1950, 114 L.Ed.2d 572 (1991) governs in its holding that a public relations campaign to enhance the reputation of teachers went beyond the legitimate functions of a teachers' union and so violated the First Amendment freedom of its members. 8 Undoubtedly every effort to persuade public opinion is political in the broad sense of that term. However, what Keller found objectionable was not political activity but partisan political activity as well as ideological campaigns unrelated to the bar's purpose. What the Supreme Court held objectionable in Lehnert was education about the teaching profession unconnected to the collective bargaining function of the union. Lehnert, 500 U.S. at 528, 111 S.Ct. 1950. In contrast, the activity here is highly germane to the purposes for which the State Bar exists. 9 Among the functions of the State Bar in this case is the function identified by the district court — to advance understanding of the law, the system of justice, and the role of lawyers, as opposed to nonlawyers, to make the law work for everyone. That purpose is satisfied by the State Bar's campaign to dispel any notion that lawyers are cheats or are merely dedicated to their own self-advancement or profit. The law, rightly understood, is not a business where the bottom line dictates the conduct that is permissible. The law is a profession where a near monopoly of access to the courts is granted to a trained group of men and women on the basis that they will follow the profession's rules of conduct and in so doing serve the cause of justice. 10 Gardner makes the point that lawyers are supposed to serve their clients, not everyone. But the underlying assumption that justifies the justice system is that everyone is served by the adequate representation of conflicting interests and perspectives. It is perfectly true, not puffery, that lawyers strive to make the law work for everyone by their fair and zealous representations of their clients. It is important for the public to understand that a lawyer representing a defendant in a criminal case is not a defender of crime, and that a lawyer advising his or her client of a tax break is not a scoundrel but an ally of a government that should collect as tax no more than the law allows. It is equally important for citizens to know that a prosecutor seeking to imprison a man believed guilty of a crime is serving justice, as is the state tax department's attorneys seeking to collect a tax. The lawyer who represents a client who believes she has been unfairly denied promotion is as much a partner in the system of justice as the lawyer who acts for her employer seeking to explain the apparent discrimination. 11 The public needs to know that often there are two, or more, sides to a story or a situation. More's Utopia has no lawyers, but in our real world, lawyers are not merely a necessity but a blessing. If the public doesn't understand that — and the State Bar had reason to think many members of the public did not — the justice system itself will wither. The work of the State Bar to foster public understanding of the adversary nature of law is vital to the bar's function. It is no infringement of a lawyer's First Amendment freedoms to be forced to contribute to the advancement of the public understanding of law. 12 AFFIRMED.