2019 Equal Justice Conference

The recent decision of the United States Supreme Court in Janus v. AFSCME, 585 U.S. 16 (2018), has created new challenges for mandatory bar associations and providers of civil legal aid, affecting the earlier ruling in Keller v. State Bar of California, 496 U.S. 1 (1990), which supported many of the programs of fully integrated state bars.

The Supreme Court’s recent remand in the 8th Circuit case of Fleck v. Wetch, 868 F.3d 652 (2017), on Janus grounds, and federal court challenges in Texas and Wisconsin to the state bar’s access to justice initiatives and funding of civil legal aid have left a cloud of uncertainty among bar leaders, access to justice advocates, and civil legal aid programs.

This session will explain these cases’ potential impact and engage participants in a discussion of next steps in preparing a community response.