Anti-Harassment Legal Ethics Rule Faces Constitutional Fight (1)

The American Bar Association’s push for states to adopt its anti-discrimination ethics rule is facing a higher constitutional hurdle after a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Model Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4(g) prohibits lawyers from harassing and discriminating against others in conduct related to practicing law. But opponents of the rule—including the Federalist Society and the Christian Legal Society—which already raised First Amendment concerns, now have a new arrow in their quiver: the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in NIFLA v. Becerra.

Becerra involved a California law that required crisis pregnancy centers to notify women of state-subsidized services, including ...