TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Liz Slagle Todaro on Apr 23, 2024

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal involving a Pennsylvania state rule of professional conduct that prohibits lawyers from knowingly or intentionally engaging "in conduct constituting harassment or discrimination" based on race, sex, religion and other grounds. According to Reuters, the attorney challenging the rule argued that he risked violating it due to presentations he gives about offensive and derogatory language. In August, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the attorney lacked standing to sue because he had not shown that the rule threatened his constitutional free speech rights because it did not prohibit anything he planned to do.