That incident at Stanford has really brought attention to this issue. It’s great to see people responding.
The Washington Free Beacon reports:
Texas Bar Application Adds Questions About ‘Incivility’ and Free Speech in Wake of Stanford Law School FracasThe state of Texas is updating its bar application to include questions about whether applicants have engaged in “incivility and violations of school policies,” according to a letter from the Texas Supreme Court obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. The change is a direct response to an incident at Stanford Law School last month in which students shouted down a federal judge.Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) wrote to the bar in March suggesting the change, arguing that Stanford Law School graduates should “be made to answer, in writing, whether they participated in the shameful harassment” of Fifth Circuit appellate judge Kyle Duncan, who was subjected to vulgar heckling when he attempted to deliver prepared remarks. The bar responded in early April, indicating that it planned to ask all applicants “directly” about their involvement in disruptive protests.Texas’s board of bar examiners made the change after concluding that schools like Stanford—which did not discipline a single heckler—cannot be trusted to attest to an applicant’s character. The state “has historically relied on law schools to report disciplinary matters that should be considered in determining an applicant’s character and fitness for admission to the Texas bar,” Nathan Hecht, the chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, wrote on behalf of the bar examiners, who evaluate applications to the bar. “School reactions to recent violations of free-speech policies suggest that reliance is not justified.”All lawyers must pass a “character and fitness” check that screens for values like honesty and civility. If those checks become more focused on disruptive conduct, they could make law students think twice before engaging in that conduct.
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