Court Opinion

ID: 9741738
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:01:08.09888+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:25.772210
License: Public Domain

DAY, J.
(dissenting). I dissent. I would grant the petitioners’ request.
The majority correctly holds that the Board of Governors of the State Bar has the duty under State Bar Rule 7 to submit to the membership by referendum questions of bar association policy when requested to do so by 300 or more active members. I do not agree, how*754ever, with the majority’s holding that the petitioners’ three questions are not matters of State Bar policy on the ground that they seek to change the State Bar into a voluntary association.
An affirmative vote on any or all of the three questions would not, in itself, effect such a change. The vote of the bar’s membership on referendum questions controls the action of the association, the Board of Governors, the officers, sections and committees, but such effect is binding only to the extent that State Bar Rules contain no provisions to the contrary.
State Bar Rule 13 provides two means for amending the association’s rules: proposals for amendment or abrogation of those rules may be presented to the court either by petition of the Board of Governors or by petition of the assembly of members. The referendum rule provides for submission to the membership of any question of association policy, including proposals for changes in the rules, and as to a referendum requested by the assembly of members, it requires that a resolution “directing the board of governors to propose changes in the Rules” first be adopted at two consecutive meetings of the assembly. Read together, these rules give to the membership voting in a referendum the right to have proposals for rule amendment or abrogation presented to the court by petition of the Board of Governors.
Thus, for example, the rule on sanctions for non-payment of membership dues cannot be changed by vote of the membership; membership vote can, however, require the Board of Governors to petition the court for such rule change. Likewise, the rules governing the activities of the State Bar cannot be changed solely by vote of the membership.
The Board of Governors concedes that the question of what the State Bar’s position should be as to continued integration is a matter of association policy and is ap*755propriate for submission to the membership by a Rule 7 referendum. The binding effect of an affirmative vote on the petitioners’ questions would be limited to the State Bar’s bringing to the court its membership’s position on the matter of continued integration. The decision on that question is the court’s.
The petitioners have complied with the requirements of the State Bar referendum rule, and the questions they propose deal with association policy. Consequently, the petitioners are entitled to have their questions submitted for determination by the membership and, further, to have that determination presented to the court.