Bias CLE 599 to 1
Friday, March 26, 2004
POINT BY POINT RESPONSE IN ROTHENBERG CASE (Part 2)
The Court says:
(page 4) To be approved, a course: must be identified on an application and described in a narrative as fulfilling the elimination of bias requirement; must focus on issues in the legal profession and in the practice of law and not on issues of bias in society in general; and must not address the substantive law of illegal discrimination unless the course meets one or more of the learning goals for elimination of bias courses.
My amicus brief says:
The convoluted definition provided by the Special CLE Advisory Committee further contributes to the unconstitutional vagueness of the Bias CLE Rule. On the one hand, courses must be “directly related to the practice of law.” CLE Rule 2I. On the other hand, substantive law courses do not, by themselves, qualify for credit. Id. at 6B. Further, the course may not deal with bias in society generally. Id. The precise
definition of the course exists somewhere between a course directly related to the practice of law and a substantive law course.
