State bars have become notorious for bringing charges against conservative attorneys like Donald Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar John Eastman, but last week a California disciplinary court judge dismissed such politically motivated charges. California Bar Disciplinary Court Judge Dennis G. Saab ruled on October 3 that attorney Marla Anne Brown did not engage in professional misconduct by tweeting that looters should be shot, since it was protected free speech in her personal capacity.
“The highest priority of the State Bar of California is public protection,” Brown’s attorney Jesse D. Franklin-Murdock told The Arizona Sun Times. “The State Bar Court lived up to that promise by reaffirming that Ms. Brown has the same First Amendment rights that all lawyers have.”
Brown’s attorney, Krista L. Baughman, added, “The Court’s decision is a victory not only for Ms. Brown, who was exonerated of every charge brought against her, but for all California attorneys who wish to exercise their free speech rights without fear of punishment. The Order accords with decades of First Amendment precedent establishing that this case should never have been brought in the first place, and we are pleased that Ms. Brown may now return to the practice of law with her unblemished record intact.”
The State Bar of California brought four charges against Brown related to her Twitter account. Two accused her of “moral turpitude,” a vague ethics rule often used as a catchall to discipline attorneys, and the other two charges accused her of breaking criminal anti-rioting laws. The first two charges claimed that she had misrepresented her Twitter biography and directed others to commit acts of violence.
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