Some Georgia lawyers have been grumbling for years over the fact that the State Bar forces them to fund the organization’s political views. And paying dues to the Georgia Bar is a precondition of practicing law, so to date there hasn’t been any recourse except to complain. But all that could change because of the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Janus v Afscme.
Two Wisconsin lawyers in March filed suit against their state bar association which takes positions on all sorts of left-leaning issues. And, like in Georgia, they must pay bar dues if they want to practice law. However, according to The Wall Street Journal, the plaintiffs argue that “forcing them to fund the bar’s political speech infringes on their First Amendment rights by compelling them to subsidize views they disagree with.”
The newspaper notes that the Wisconsin challenge has become more potent because of the Janus ruling: “The Court in that case struck down compulsory public union fees that forced individuals to underwrite ‘private speech on matters of substantial public concern.’” The paper went on to explain that this overturned a 1977 high court precedent that is the main pillar of enforcing forced dues collection.
Suits like the one in Wisconsin are also in courts in other states and there are rumblings that Georgia may be next. In fact, the lawyers in Wisconsin are using an argument once postulated by Thomas Jefferson: “(T)o compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” Conservative lawyers forced to pay dues to what they consider is a “politically liberal” Georgia Bar have saying that for quite some time.
