Case Categories: Bar Admissions and Freedom of Association

The bar admission process has led to First Amendment challenges by applicants who wanted to practice law but were denied because of political associations or beliefs. This is a list of First Amendment-related court rulings related to bar admission.

• Baird v. State Bar of Arizona (1971)

  Baird v. State Bar of Arizona (1971) is one of several Supreme Court rulings that extended greater First Amendment protection to admission to the bar...

• In re Anastaplo (1961)

  In In re Anastaplo (1961) the Court held that a plaintiff’s exclusion from the Illinois state bar did not violate First Amendment freedoms of speech and...

• In re Sawyer (1959)

  In re Sawyer (1959) reversed a suspension of an attorney who had criticized the court handling her case. She had argued her speech was protected by the First...

• In re Stolar (1971)

  In In re Stolar (1971), the Court ruled that the First Amendment prohibits states from penalizing attorneys solely on the basis of membership in a specific...

• In re Summers (1945)

  In re Summers (1945) upheld that denying an attorney's admission to the bar because he was a conscientious objector to war did not violate the free exercise of...

• Jarchow v. State Bar of Wisconsin (2020)

  The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a First Amendment challenge to a requirement that attorneys pay dues to a state bar association in Wisconsin to support...

• Keller v. State Bar of California (1990)

  In Keller v. State Bar of California (1990), the Court upheld a state bar's use of compulsory membership fees if such fees were used to support "germane"...

• Konigsberg v. State Bar (1961)

  Konigsberg v. State Bar (1961) addressed bar applicants' First Amendment rights after an applicant refused to answer questions about his Communist affiliation...

• Law Students Civil Rights Research Council v. Wadmond (1971)

  Law Students Civil Rights Research Council v. Wadmond (1971) said a state bar requirement for attorneys to prove loyalty to the United States did not violate...