Supreme Court Rejects Mandatory Wisconsin Bar Membership Case

The U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear a case arguing that mandatory state bar memberships violate First Amendment free-speech guarantees.

In rejecting the petition filed by two Wisconsin lawyers, the high court on Monday let stand a 2019 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirming an earlier dismissal of the case. Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas dissented from the denial.

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin had based its ruling on the high court’s 1990 decision in Keller v. State Bar of California, which allowed states to compel bar membership. ...