Gay conservative lawyer sues state bar association for honoring Pride Month & wins

A gay conservative lawyer sued the Louisiana State Bar for putting a rainbow flag on its website. And he just won a major victory in his court battle.

Randy Boudreaux, an attorney in Louisiana, where he is required to be a member of his state bar association, took issue with the fact that his dues were being used for speech unrelated to the bar association’s role in regulating and supporting the legal profession.

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He took issue with several communications from the Louisiana State Bar, including a set of “Wellness Wednesday” tweets that the organization posted on its Twitter account that told lawyers to eat walnuts, exercise three times per week, and get sunlight. He was also upset about a Pride flag posted to the group’s website this past summer that linked to a History.com page about the LGBTQ+ movement.

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Mandatory state bar associations in the Fifth Circuit have not been allowed to engage in “lobbying speech” since a 2021 ruling against the Texas State Bar. The intent of the rule is to prevent lawyers’ mandatory dues money from being used for political speech they oppose. The Louisiana State Bar charges $80 to $200 per year in dues.

Represented by the conservative Pelican Institute, Boudreaux sued the Louisiana State Bar and the Louisiana Supreme Court because it works with the state bar. The trial judge in June 2022 dismissed Boudreaux’s suit after examining 17 tweets and emails sent by the Louisiana State Bar that he claimed were unlawful speech.

But he appealed, and the U.S. Appeals Court for the Fifth Circuit ruled in his favor.

“Although walnuts, exercise, and Vitamin D may be beneficial, they fall outside the LSBA’s purview, at least when they are the basis of generic advice to attorneys about health and fitness,” Judge Jerry Smith, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote in his decision, saying that those health tweets are illegal because “they do not sufficiently relate to legal practice or the legal profession.”

About the Pride flag on the website, the panel of judges said that the bar association could promote LGBTQ+ participation in the legal profession but that there was no relationship between the flag or the linked article and the legal profession. Smith wrote that LGBTQ+ equality is an issue “fraught with controversy.”

“The LSBA can promote inclusion of LGBT individuals in the legal profession,” Smith wrote, “but the LSBA may not promote LGBT causes generally, with no connection to the legal profession.”

The judges also agreed with Boudreaux’s complaint about a Reuters article that the Louisiana State Bar shared about how student debt affects young lawyers, saying that it’s a “personal matter” that affects lawyers, which isn’t enough to be lawful speech because it “must be reasonably related to the regulation or improvement of legal practice,” Smith wrote.

Smith also didn’t like tweets from the bar association about charity drives for Christmas and Halloween and another about an iPhone software update.

The judges did not rule that the Louisiana State Bar violated Boudreaux’s First Amendment rights and instead issued a temporary injunction preventing the bar association from requiring him to pay dues and sent the case back to the trial court judge to come up with a solution.

“They stood up for the rights of free speech and free association for bar members,” Boudreaux’s lawyer told Courthouse News Service.

Last year, the Pelican Institute tweeted that the case was about Boudreaux’s fight “against mandatory membership in the Louisiana State Bar Association,” not just the specific tweets and emails.

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