Randy Boudreaux became a lawyer to help people. “For years, I did some insurance defense work, I’ve had my own practice, a mobile notary service and other things like that.” The New Orleans native has an impressive legal resume. But ironically, since his first day as an attorney, the organization enabling Boudreaux to practice law has been violating his First Amendment rights.
To practice law in Louisiana, Boudreaux must be a dues-paying member of the Louisiana State Bar Association (LSBA). Louisiana is not unique with this requirement, in almost every state in the country, an attorney must join the bar and pay dues to practice law in that state. Every bar association purports to assist lawyers with professional support, advice and services. But many state bars also take positions and do advocacy work on political issues. While the bar associations claim they only take positions on issues associated with the legal profession, that link is often questionable at best.
This frustrated Boudreaux, “I’ve always been bothered by [mandatory bar membership]. The bar can take these political stances while still speaking on your behalf as a lawyer.”
But during a luncheon for the Pelican Institute for Public Policy’s new Center for Justice, Randy started talking with James Baehr, the Special Counsel at Pelican. And (as can only happen during conversations between lawyers) the discussion eventually turned to two topics: mandatory bar memberships and a recent groundbreaking Supreme Court decision. The more they talked, the more Baehr and Boudreaux realized that they had a case.
For decades, the Supreme Court ruled that mandatory job-related organization memberships were constitutional. Even though these mandatory memberships were always questionable, (and even though unions and organizations like state bar associations pushed the limits of what was allowed), the Supreme Court found them constitutional time after time.
But that all changed in 2018 with a case called Janus v. AFSCME.
In Janus, the Supreme Court ruled that speech from groups like public sector unions is inherently political since “it covers critically important and public matters such as the State’s budget crisis, taxes, and collective bargaining issues related to education, child welfare, healthcare, and minority rights.” The Court’s decision changed how government unions were allowed to extract fees from members. Now, because of Janus, workers choose whether or not to join a union—they’re no longer simply forced.
Since the Janus ruling, government union membership has fallen by 60,000 nationwide. For the first time in decades workers are choosing for themselves what is in their best interest.
Janus represented one of the nation’s largest-ever victories for worker freedom. And Baehr and Boudreaux knew it would be Pelican’s key to a First Amendment victory.
In their case challenging mandatory Bar Association memberships, Pelican argued that the LSBA was violating Boudreaux’s First Amendment rights in the same way public sector unions were violating state employees’ First Amendment rights in Janus. While part of the LSBA’s advocacy work is arguably related to policies impacting lawyers, the LSBA’s advocacy went far beyond that mission. Between 2007 and 2021, the LSBA’s Legislation Committee took positions on 503 bills in the Louisiana legislature.
How many of those bills directly affected lawyers? Not enough.
The LSBA advocated for a retired volunteer dental hygienist license. They pushed to establish the licensed profession of art therapist. They weighed in on bills related to funeral directors and embalmers, and advocated for legislation that eliminated the free enterprise credit requirement in Louisiana high schools. Yet ironically, the LSBA opposed politically popular tort reform—one of the few legislative issues that directly impacted the legal profession.
And all this non-attorney-related advocacy was made possible by the dues LSBA member attorneys were forced to pay.
After Pelican filed their case, it made its way between the district court and the U.S. Fifth Circuit for 4 years. After numerous hearings, trials, appeals and more appeals, the Fifth Circuit finally ruled in favor of Pelican and Boudreaux. The court issued an injunction against the LSBA’s “non-germane” political speech and forced the LSBA to dismantle its Legislative Committee. Once and for all, the court forced the LSBA to abandon its legislative advocacy work which violated the First Amendment rights of the attorneys who were forced to join. As part of the decision, the LSBA also agreed to pay for Pelican’s attorney’s fees—always an important victory in public interest law.
No one should be forced to abandon their First Amendment rights just because they choose a specific profession. Janus created this critical Supreme Court precedent, but SPN partners like the Pelican Institute are ensuring this freedom of speech is defended—and strengthened—across the country.
Now, thanks to Pelican, Randy Boudreaux is free to help his clients without sacrificing his own rights in the process.
