Bill Text: AZ HCM2003 | 2016 | Fifty-second Legislature 2nd Regular | Introduced

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Bill Title: Transparency; state bar; member dues

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 6-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-01-20 - Referred to House JUD Committee [HCM2003 Detail]

Download: Arizona-2016-HCM2003-Introduced.html

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REFERENCE TITLE: transparency; state bar; member dues

 

 

 

State of Arizona

House of Representatives

Fifty-second Legislature

Second Regular Session

2016

 

 

HCM 2003

 

Introduced by

Representatives Kern: Campbell, Finchem, Lawrence, Mitchell, Thorpe

 

 

A CONCURRENT MEMORIAL

 

urging the Arizona Supreme Court to establish improved transparency measures with respect to the expenditure of State Bar of Arizona member dues.

 

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

 

To the Arizona Supreme Court:

      Your memorialist respectfully represents:

Whereas, integrated bar associations "implicate the First Amendment freedom of association, which includes the freedom to choose not to associate, and the First Amendment freedom of speech, which also includes the freedom to remain silent or to avoid subsidizing group speech with which a person disagrees," Kingstad v. State Bar of Wis., 622 F.3d 708, 712-13 (7th Cir. 2010); and

Whereas, in Keller v. State Bar of California, 496 U.S. 1 (1990), the United States Supreme court held that California's integrated bar interfered with the First Amendment freedoms of its members by using their dues for political and ideological activities and that members' dues may be used only for activities such as the regulation of the legal profession or the improvement of legal services; and

Whereas, the State Bar of Arizona admittedly spends its members' dues on political speech, including lobbying and electioneering; and

Whereas, the State Bar of Arizona undoubtedly takes political positions with which some of its members disagree and uses the mandatory fees of those members to do so; and

Whereas, the process to determine how the State Bar of Arizona spends member dues in reference to political activity lacks transparency; and

Whereas, the Arizona Supreme Court has asserted a claim to exclusive authority over the regulation of attorneys and the governance of the State Bar of Arizona.

Wherefore your memorialist, the House of Representatives of the State of      Arizona, the Senate concurring, prays:

      1.  That the Arizona Supreme Court establish improved transparency measures with respect to the practices and policies of the State Bar of Arizona in spending member dues.

      2.  That the Secretary of State transmit copies of this Memorial to each justice of the Arizona Supreme Court.