Application of Hansen

275 N.W.2d 790, 1978 Minn. LEXIS 1195
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedNovember 9, 1978
Docket48674
StatusPublished
Cited by45 cases

This text of 275 N.W.2d 790 (Application of Hansen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Application of Hansen, 275 N.W.2d 790, 1978 Minn. LEXIS 1195 (Mich. 1978).

Opinions

KELLY, Justice.

This case comes before the court pursuant to petitioner’s request for review of a decision by the State Board of Law Examiners (Board) that petitioner would not be allowed to sit for the Minnesota State Bar examination because he had not graduated from an approved law school as required by Rule 11(4)1 of the Supreme Court Rules for Admission to the Bar. We affirm.

Petitioner, originally a Minnesota resident, is a 1977 graduate of Western State University College of Law (Western State), San Diego, California. Although not admitted to the University of Minnesota Law School, petitioner had the opportunity to attend a number of the 166 law schools accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA). After one month at Marquette University Law School, petitioner decided [792]*792to transfer to Western State Law School. Western State has never applied to the ABA for accreditation. It has been accredited both by the California Committee of Bar Examiners and by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

Prior to leaving Marquette petitioner had a conference with the Dean who advised him to remain at Marquette, partly because of its ABA-approved status. Nevertheless, petitioner decided to leave Marquette and enroll at Western State.

In the fall of 1976, when petitioner was a senior student at Western State, he applied to the Board for permission to sit for the July, 1977, bar examination. The Board denied his application because he was not a graduate of an approved law school. According to the Rules for Admission to the Bar, an approved law school is one “that is provisionally or fully approved by the Section of Legal Education for Admissions to the Bar of the American Bar Association.”

Thereafter, petitioner requested and was granted a formal hearing before the Board, pursuant to Rule X, Rules for Admission to the Bar.2 On March 11, 1977, after a full hearing, at which petitioner waived his right to appear, the Board found that he did not satisfy the requirements of Rule 11(4) and therefore again denied him permission to sit for the bar examination.

On May 11, 1977, petitioner sought a hearing before this court which was denied on June 7,1977. His request for a reconsideration of his petition, filed on August 22, 1977, was granted. During this interim period petitioner wrote and passed the California Bar Examination and was admitted to practice in California in January, 1978.

This case presents the following issues for decision:

(1) Whether Rule 11(4) of the Supreme Court rules for Admission to the Bar is constitutional; and,

(2) Whether, granting its constitutionality, the requirement of graduating from an ABA-accredited law school should be waived in this case.

1. Petitioner and Western State, as amicus curiae, suggest that Minnesota’s rule requiring proof of graduation from an ABA-approved law school as a prerequisite to sitting for the bar examination is unconstitutional under both the due process and the equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. We disagree. As long as the requirements established by state supreme courts to regulate the practice of law are reasonable ones, they comply with applicable constitutional principles.

All United States Supreme Court decisions concerning state regulation of the practice of law recognize that a state has a substantial interest in the qualifications of those it admits to the legal profession. See, e. g., In re Griffiths, 413 U.S. 717, 725, 93 S.Ct. 2851, 2856, 37 L.Ed.2d 910, 917 (1973); Schware v. Board of Bar Examiners, 353 U.S. 232, 239, 77 S.Ct. 752, 756, 1 L.Ed.2d 796, 801 (1957). As the Supreme Court noted recently in Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar, 421 U.S. 773, 792, 95 S.Ct. 2004, 2016, 44 L.Ed.2d 572, 588 (1975):

“ * * * [T]he States have a compelling interest in the practice of professions within their boundaries, and * * * as part of their power to protect the public health, safety, and other valid interests they have broad power to establish standards for licensing practitioners * * *. The interest of the States in regulating [793]*793lawyers is especially great since lawyers are essential to the primary governmental function of administering justice, and have historically been ‘officers of the courts.’ ”

Nevertheless, the Court has also recognized that “[t]he practice of law is not a matter of grace, but of right for one who is qualified by his learning and his moral character.” Baird v. State Board of Arizona, 401 U.S. 1, 8, 91 S.Ct. 702, 707, 27 L.Ed.2d 639, 648 (1971). Thus, while “[a] state can require high standards of qualifications, such as good moral character or proficiency in its law, before it admits an applicant to the bar, * * * any qualification must have a rational connection with the applicant’s fitness or capacity to practice law.” Schware v. Board of Bar Examiners, 353 U.S. 232, 239, 77 S.Ct. 752, 756, 1 L.Ed.2d 796, 801.

The test that emerges from these cases is that, despite the strong interest of the applicant in being able to practice law, the state can regulate admission as long as such regulation is reasonably related to its interest in a competent bar. A procedure is reasonable as long as it is not arbitrary and capricious. Only if the complainant is a member of a suspect class or if the procedure at issue violates a fundamental right must the state demonstrate a compelling state interest for its system of regulation to pass constitutional muster. See, e. g., In re Griffiths, 413 U.S. 717, 93 S.Ct. 2851, 37 L.Ed.2d 910 (1973).

The procedure being challenged in this case is Minnesota’s requirement that an applicant wishing to take the bar examination demonstrate, among other things, that he graduated from a law school which is provisionally or fully accredited by the American Bar Association.3 Rule 11(4), Supreme Court Rules for Admission to the Bar. Although there have been numerous challenges over the years to educational requirements similar to those of Rule II, both state and federal courts have consistently found such requirements to be constitutional.4 See, Lombardi v. Tauro, 470 F.2d 798 (1 Cir.), certiorari denied, 412 U.S. 919, 93 S.Ct. 2734, 37 L.Ed.2d 145 (1972); Hackin v. Lockwood, 361 F.2d 499 (9 Cir. 1966), appeal dismissed, 389 U.S. 143 (1967); Moore v. Supreme Court of South Carolina, 447 F.Supp. 527 (D.S.C.1977); Murphy v. State Board of Law Examiners for the Commonwealth of Pa., 429 F.Supp. 16 (E.D. Pa.1977); Potter v. New Jersey Supreme Court, 403 F.Supp. 1036 (D.N.J.1975); Rossiter v. Law Committee of the State Board of Law Examiners, Civil Action No. C-4767 (D.Colo.1975); In re Eisenson,

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Bluebook (online)
275 N.W.2d 790, 1978 Minn. LEXIS 1195, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/application-of-hansen-minn-1978.