Golden v. State Board of Law Examiners

452 F. Supp. 1082, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18674
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maryland
DecidedMarch 30, 1978
DocketCiv. K-77-677
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 452 F. Supp. 1082 (Golden v. State Board of Law Examiners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Golden v. State Board of Law Examiners, 452 F. Supp. 1082, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18674 (D. Md. 1978).

Opinion

FRANK A. KAUFMAN, District Judge.

Plaintiff asks this Court to declare unconstitutional and to enjoin enforcement of Rule 10 of the Rules Governing Admission to the Bar of Maryland. 1 Jurisdiction exists under 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3), the jurisdictional counterpart of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. 2

On January 18,1977, Golden, who resides in Washington, D. C., 3 filed an application for registration as a candidate for admission to the Maryland Bar and a petition to take the Maryland Bar examination scheduled in July 1977. She received in response a letter from the Secretary of the Maryland State Board of Law Examiners which letter stated, in pertinent part:

In response to your letter addressed to Mr. Gingerich, Chairman of the State Board of Law Examiners we regret to advise you that we cannot accept your application for registration as a candidate for admission to the bar.
There is no provision in the Rules adopted by the Court of Appeals of Maryland Governing Admission to the Bar which would permit the Board to waive the requirement of domicile in this State as provided in Rule 10 4

Rule 10 provides:

Maryland Domicile Essential
a. On Application or Petition
No person shall be entitled to file an application for registration under Rule 2 (Registration of Law Students) or take an examination under Rule 5 (Procedure to Take Bar Examination; Recognition of Law Schools) or retake an examination *1084 under Rule 8 (Taking Examination After Failure) unless, at the time of filing the application or taking or retaking the examination, such person is a domiciliary of Maryland.
b. On Admission
No person shall be admitted to the Bar of this State unless at the time of admission such person is a domiciliary of Maryland. 5

*1085 Neither Rule 10 nor any other rule requires that residence exist at any times other than at registration for, and at the time of taking of, the bar exam, and at admission. Nor must an applicant maintain Maryland residency for any extended period of time. Rule 5(a) 6 does, however, require that the applicant be a domiciliary of Maryland twenty days prior to the examination. Golden contends that Rule 10 violates the equal protection clause, 7 the privileges and immunities clauses, 8 and the commerce clause. 9 Defendants seek summary judgment 10 with regard to each of those challenges — challenges which are of a type which have been asserted in our increasingly mobile society within the present decade in a number of cases involving residency requirements of states other than Maryland, for bar examinations and admission to practice law. Most states do have such requirements though they differ substantially in content. The developing case law is most instructive with relation to the three-pronged attack plaintiff mounts herein.

Equal Protection

In Suffling v. Bondurant, 339 F.Supp. 257 (D.N.M.), aff’d mem. sub nom., Rose v. Bondurant, 409 U.S. 1020, 93 S.Ct. 460, 34 L.Ed.2d 312 (1972), the majority of the three-judge court sustained the constitutionality of a New Mexico rule which prevented persons who had passed the New Mexico Bar exam from being admitted to practice law in New Mexico until they had accumulated a six-month period of New Mexico residency either before, or before and after, the bar exam. The majority of the Court concluded that that rule did not deny equal protection because it allowed the community a reasonable period of time to observe and evaluate the applicant’s moral character. Judge Bratton, dissenting, found no valid state purpose. The majority opinion (at 259-60) reviewed a number of cases previously decided with regard to the bar-residency requirements of other states and based its conclusion on its understanding of their teachings:

A state may require its bar members to be of good moral character and fit to *1086 practice their profession. Schware v. Board of Bar Examiners, supra. Accordingly, Rule II, subd. A, par. 10 of the Rules Governing Bar Examiners which provides that an applicant for examination must satisfy the Board of his good moral character is not challenged here.
A state may also require that an applicant for admission to the bar be a resident for a reasonable period of time in order that his character and fitness may be examined. Webster v. Wofford, 321 F.Supp. 1259 (N.D.Ga.1970).
The question seems to turn on the length of time required to determine good character and to establish residence before admission and whether that length of time is reasonable.
While the regulations require that residence and good moral character be established before taking the bar examination, the Commissioners have allowed the residence period to start at any time before the bar examination with the balance to be filled out after the examination. Residence in New Mexico can start at any time from five months and 29 days before or on the day of the examination with the balance of time to be completed after the examination and good moral character can be established after the examination.
None of the cases in which residency requirements have been held unconstitutional deals with the requirements as liberal as those of New Mexico.
Mississippi required twelve months’ residency prior to application to take the examination and further required that a written application be filed at least ninety days before the time of examination. Residency in Mississippi was thus required for a total of fifteen months. Lipman v. Van Zant, 329 F.Supp. 391 (N.D.Miss.1971).
Georgia required establishment of good moral character before taking the examination and twelve months’ residence after passing the examination prior to admission. • Webster v. Wofford, supra. North Carolina required twelve months’ residence prior to taking the examination and gave the examination only once each year. Keenan v. Board of Law Examiners of State of North Carolina, 317 F.Supp. 1350 (E.D.N.C.1970). In no case was less than one year’s residence required and in Keenan

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Bluebook (online)
452 F. Supp. 1082, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18674, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/golden-v-state-board-of-law-examiners-mdd-1978.