High Court Sends Back Bar Membership Row

The U.S. Supreme Court sent back a case challenging a nearly 30-year-old precedent allowing mandatory bar membership.

The case took aim at the county’s first mandatory bar, North Dakota’s, which required membership in the state’s bar association as a condition to practice law as early as 1921, according to the American Bar Association.

Although the state with the most lawyers as of 2017—New York—still has voluntary membership, 37 other U.S. jurisdictions have “unified” or “integrated” bars, which require bar membership, according to ABA statistics.

Arnold Fleck, a North Dakota lawyer, says the requirement violates his First Amendment ...