When you’re right, you’re right. Even when you’re Right.

I’ve written a bit in the past about the differences between unified bars, like what exists in North Carolina, and voluntary state bar associations such as what we have in Tennessee. (If you are uninterested in clicking on either of those links, as a refresher, the fundamental difference is that unified bars require that anyone who is licensed to practice in the state is a member of the state bar association.)

Among the biggest differences are the risks attendant for unified bars when they take various actions, including issuing ethics opinions, that they are treated as a government entity.

A case working its way through the Texas courts emphasizes another of those risks – the risk that engaging in efforts that bar leadership may believe to be in the best interest of society will be challenged by members of the mandatory bar association on First Amendment grounds.

Those risks have been made starker by the 2018 ruling of the United States Supreme Court in Janus v. AFSCME.

Texas is a state with an unified bar and exactly such a lawsuit has been brought by Texas lawyers over the State Bar of Texas having programs involving diversity initiatives, access to justice, and programs seeking to prevent the deportation of immigrants. This matter came back into the legal news this week because the Attorney General of Texas has taken the somewhat unusual step of filing an amicus brief to side with the lawyers rather than with the government agency under fire.

You can read the Texas AG’s amicus brief here. But, in sum, the argument it makes is that the funding of speech and policies with which one disagrees using bar dues you are required to pay is coerced speech and, in light of what Janus has said about that, is a violation of the First Amendment.

Now, long-time readers of this space will know I’m not much of a fan of the current Texas Attorney General, and I have little doubt that this particular elected official would never have gotten involved in this fashion if the State Bar of Texas had been taking positions more in keeping with his personal politics. (For what it is worth, my own biases had me thinking that even before I read the part of the ABA Journal article pointing out that one of the plaintiffs to whom the AG is lending his support is a conservative group with a PAC that has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to past campaigns of the AG as well as his wife who happens to be a state senator).

But none of that changes the ultimate fact here that – because of the downsides attendant with the unified bar structure – he’s probably on the side that has the stronger arguments under the First Amendment issue as interpreted by Janus, at least as to the hot-button issue of immigration reform. (I think it is much tougher sledding to claim that fighting for access to justice is not a core regulatory purpose of a bar association sufficient to satisfy exacting First Amendment scrutiny.)

This latest development in the Texas litigation is also further proof, in my opinion, that the voluntary bar association model used by Tennessee is such a vastly better approach overall.

The TBA has repeatedly been able to take positions that I personally view are on the right side of history on a variety of issues with the only risk being that if it somehow gets viewed as too political by someone who disagrees with what it is advocating for then it might lose that lawyer as a member. I would imagine, most of the time, people don’t decide to quit because, on the whole, our voluntary bar association is a worthwhile thing to be part of.

For example, I’m not at all pleased that the TBA has invited (and I’m presuming is paying) Ken Starr to come speak at its upcoming annual convention. I think Starr ought to be treated as persona non grata for a variety of reasons. His most recent hypocrisy regarding attacks on the contents of the Mueller Report as “too detailed” is just the latest example. His utter failure to do the right thing in his time at Baylor is likely, by far, the biggest reason I wish the TBA wouldn’t want him to be any part of any of its programming.

I’m disappointed, but I’m not going to quit my membership over it. I will simply refuse to attend the convention as my small act of demonstrating my distaste with the decision.

But, most importantly, I could never sue about the fact that my dues are being used to fund such an invitation because we’re not an unified bar. If we were, then under Janus I might just have a claim and that’s not at all a good thing for bar associations to have to deal with.