March 16, 2021 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Washington, DC – Earlier today, Pennsylvania enforcement officials abandoned their appeal from a district court decision enjoining them from enforcing a state rule that infringed the free speech rights of Pennsylvania attorneys. Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute challenged Rule 8.4(g) on behalf of attorney Zachary Greenberg, a Pennsylvania-licensed attorney working for a non-profit organization that advocates on behalf of students’ constitutional rights and who regularly speaks at legal education and other professional events on a variety of hot-button legal issues.
Rule 8.4(g) threatened to impose civil and professional sanction on Greenberg and other Pennsylvania attorneys if someone hearing their speech misconstrued it as a manifestation of bias or prejudice and registered a complaint with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel. Rule 8.4(g) did not clearly define “bias or prejudice,” but it did penalize the use of “words” that supposedly manifest bias or prejudice.
Greenberg moved to enjoin the rule as violating the free expression and due process of Pennsylvania attorneys. The court granted an injunction, reasoning that the rule unconstitutionally “creates a pathway for its handpicked arbiters to determine, without any concrete standards, who and what offends.”
“With today’s news that Pennsylvania officials are dropping their appeal from the court’s preliminary injunction order,” said HLLI attorney Adam Schulman, “proponents of the First Amendment can rest easier knowing that Pennsylvania’s proposed speech code for lawyers will not be taking effect.”
Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute is a nonprofit public interest law firm formed in 2019. HLLI challenges administrative and regulatory actions and abuses of the class action and civil justice system that exceed constitutional limits, promote rent-seeking, or otherwise improperly created deadweight loss; and challenges improper restrictions on speech and other actions beyond constitutional bounds.
HLLI’s website is http://hlli.org.
Contact:
Ted Frank, 703-203-3848, ted.frank@hlli.org
Adam Schulman, 610-457-0856, adam.schulman@hlli.org