Wisconsin’s state bar association is being sued for practicing discriminatory hiring as part of its Diversity Clerkship Program, which offers internship opportunities to minority or LGBTQ+ law students while excluding other applicants.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), a conservative law firm based in Milwaukee, alleges the State Bar of Wisconsin is violating the plaintiff’s First Amendment rights to free speech and free association by requiring practicing attorneys to pay dues that fund its internship program and other discriminatory initiatives they may not agree with.
The organization is also infringing on the Fourteenth Amendment equal-protection rights of law students by refusing to make the internship’s application process available to everyone regardless of physical traits or sexual orientation.
WILL filed the lawsuit on behalf of its client Daniel Suhr, a trial and appellate attorney who must pay hundreds of dollars per year to be a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin. If he does not pay, he will be suspended from his law practice in the state. Suhr maintains the dues are supporting the Bar’s unconstitutional programs and messaging.
“Internships are competitive — as they should be. But when one group is given preferential treatment over the other to apply for these programs, the programs lose competitiveness and hurt all Americans,” Suhr said in a press release. “This also goes against my beliefs entirely. The State Bar should do better and expand these opportunities to all Wisconsin law students.”
The litigation hinges on the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling on affirmative action, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which now prevents colleges and universities from factoring in a student’s race during the admissions process. WILL argues Wisconsin’s state bar, as well as law firms, companies, and government agencies that illegally engage in affirmative action, are violating the precedent set by the landmark decision.
“If diversity is not a compelling governmental interest,” as held by the Court, “programs like the one that we’re challenging are violating the rights of law students,” WILL associate counsel Skylar Croy, one of the attorneys who represents Suhr in the case, told National Review. “I don’t see any distinction between whether someone’s admitted to college and whether they’re given an internship opportunity. It’s not much of a difference there.”
Some of the Wisconsin entities that participate in the Diversity Clerkship Program, according to the suit, include Stafford Rosenbaum LLP, Alliant Energy, Froedtert Health, Kohler Company, the City of Madison, and the Wisconsin Department of Justice.
Furthermore, Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge Carl Ashley, who publicly promoted the same program, “even conceded that it was probably illegal,” the lawsuit states.
“When the government discriminates based on race, it sows more division in our country and violates the Constitution in the process,” Croy said in a statement. “WILL is standing up against discrimination and holding the State Bar accountable to the rights of its due-paying members.”
Since George Floyd’s death in 2020, the Wisconsin State Bar has actively approved the DEI agenda on social media and in public. Such examples involve promoting the Black Lives Matter movement, advising lawyers to “become friends with Black people,” and sponsoring an event where a speaker complained about the lack of racial diversity in photos she’d seen of past judges at her local courthouse.
“It’s a row of white men that goes from one end to the other,” said Rock County Circuit Court judge Ashley Morse. “For me, walking into that space, the message that I received . . . was ‘This space isn’t for you.'”
A spokesperson for the State Bar of Wisconsin did not respond to National Review’s request for comment concerning these examples.