Court Opinion

ID: 9606347
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:49:17.183792+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:34.184615
License: Public Domain

RAPER, Chief Justice,
specially concurring.
I have no disagreement with the majority opinion. This case must be decided upon the authority of In Re Griffiths, 1973, 413 U.S. 717, 93 S.Ct. 2851, 37 L.Ed.2d 910, whether we personally or individually agree with it or not, for the reasons stated in the majority opinion.
While it represents only my personal view, it is my thought that the legislature should not strike by repeal that first clause of § 33-5-105, W.S.1977, requiring United States citizenship as a prerequisite for admission to the Wyoming State Bar, even though for the moment it is rendered invalid. It has symbolic as well as a real significance as an expression of our loyalty and recognition as a State of the importance of United States citizenship and the ideals of a free people, which attorneys and counselors are especially sworn to uphold. Hopefully, some day its requirement may have its full and intended viability restored. United States citizenship is of greater value than Griffiths and our decision here assigns to it. I am torn between my obligation to uphold the law of the land as expressed by the Supreme Court of the United States and my loyalty to the view that United States citizenship should not be eroded in any fashion by even a hint of insignificance. The creeping, insidious deterioration of basic values is foreboding.