David Mast, the president of AZ Voters Rights, filed a lawsuit against the State Bar of Arizona last week, alleging it targets conservative attorneys. Mast said due to creating fear among attorneys, he cannot find any to represent him in lawsuits related to conservative causes, violating his “constitutional rights to freedom of expression, association, and petition,” which is “viewpoint discrimination.”
AZ Voters Rights is “a non-profit organization dedicated to educating and defending the voters state and constitutional rights in Arizona,” according to its website.
He filed the lawsuit pro se, without an attorney, since he “is unable to find an attorney either within or without Arizona who is willing to file this suit due to likely retaliation by Defendants.”
Mast listed several conservative attorneys who the SBA targeted for their election work; State Representative Alex Kolodin (R-Scottsdale), Ryan Heath, Jen Wright, Kurt Olsen, Andrew Parker, Dennis Wilenchik, Jack Wilenchik, Brett Johnson, Eric Spencer, Kory Langhofer, Thomas Basile, “and many others.”
Mast said he “brings this action to combat the politicized, ‘Star-Chamber’-like weaponization of the State Bar of Arizona (‘SBA’), which is acting as a clan to target attorneys who take on cases advocating for conservative causes and candidates, such as ensuring election integrity and preserving First Amendment and other constitutional rights. As a result of the Bar’s discriminatory actions as alleged herein, Plaintiff has been unable to associate with and hire attorneys to take on conservative causes on Plaintiff’s behalf for fear of retaliation and intimidation by the SBA in violation of his First Amendment rights to freely express his views, associate, and petition the government for redress.”
Read the rest of the article at The Tennessee Star