Fifth Circuit Upholds Mandatory Bar, Clarifies Germaneness Standards
On November 13, 2023, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals released its opinion in Boudreaux v. Louisiana State Bar Association, Case No. 22-30564 (“Boudreaux II”). The Court reconfirmed that the LSBA can continue to operate as a mandatory bar association provided that it confines its programming to constitutionally germane activities. “If a bar’s speech activities are germane, then there is no free association or free speech problem with compulsory membership.” Id. at 9. The Court further recognized that “the LSBA has ceased all the conduct that Boudreaux originally challenged.” Id. at 11. But the Court noted that the plaintiff still had identified “some examples of non-germane speech.” Id. at 2.