Government regulatory boards are common for countless professions throughout the country. For the legal profession, most states have a government-sanctioned, mandatory membership organization to oversee regulation and bar admissions. Some of these entities also focus on ethics and professional development.
The West Virgina State Bar serves this function in the Mountain State. Founded in 1947 as an administrative arm of the state’s Supreme Court of Appeals, the West Virginia State Bar is a mandatory association for some 9,000 attorneys licensed to practice law in the state.
The State Bar is led by a 26-member Board of Governors made up of active attorneys. The Board positions are four-year terms, and most are filled through the nomination and election of eligible attorneys within each of the State Bar’s 16 districts.
One seat, however, has nothing to do with lawyering and everything to do with race. Specifically, a bylaw adopted by the State Bar in 1985 reserves one Board seat for a lawyer who is African American and limits voting for this seat to only African American members. This seat will be up for election in 2025.
The Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR) is a nationwide nonprofit dedicated to promoting equal protection under the law. FAIR has members who would be fully eligible for nomination to this West Virginia State Bar seat if race weren’t a factor.
An individual’s race or ethnicity should not be the determining factor for who gets the opportunity to serve the public—or who gets to vote for public servants. Treating people differently on the basis of race violates the very notion of equality before the law. People should be treated as individuals, not as members of a group they did not choose.
The West Virginia State Bar’s racial criteria for public service are no exception. Such blatant racial discrimination is unjust, demeaning, and unconstitutional. Limiting an individual’s candidacy to a preferred race violates the Equal Protection Clause, while the Fifteenth Amendment prohibits the same restrictions for voters.
Represented at no charge by Pacific Legal Foundation, FAIR is fighting back with a federal lawsuit challenging the West Virginia State Bar’s race-based Board membership and voting requirements. Victory would remove this explicit, discriminatory barrier to public service opportunities.
West Virginia is not the only state to use immutable characteristics to limit opportunities for individuals to serve their state and local communities. A PLF report found such unlawful discrimination on the books in 25 states. Without action, the problem is likely to worsen. PLF is working to defeat race and sex board quotas everywhere the unconstitutional practice is allowed.
What’s At Stake?
- The West Virginia State Bar cannot deny individuals the opportunity to serve on public boards due to their race. Limiting opportunities based on race violates the very notion of equality before the law. People should be treated as individuals, not as members of a group they did not choose.
- It is unconstitutional for West Virginia to implement racial restrictions on who can vote for public servants. Such racial criteria are unjust, demeaning, and a violation of the Fifteenth Amendment.
