Shocking New Rule Could Purge Religious Attorneys from the Courtroom

The American Bar Association has just passed a shocking new ethics rule that could make it difficult for attorneys of faith to practice law.

Under the new Model Rule 8.4, attorneys can be disciplined by state bar authorities for expressing views that do not align with modern social orthodoxy on contentious issues such as marriage, immigration, and religion.

Ken Klukowski, senior counsel at First Liberty Institute, talks more about the impact of this new rule. Watch above.

Concerned lawyers say that in states where the law is implemented, anyone will be able to bring up an attorney on ethics charges if they hear them at anytime, anywhere expressing unpolitically correct opinions on controversial social issues.

"This rule is written so broadly that anything that I as an attorney, discuss with someone over coffee or at a restaurant, or anything I say if I'm teaching Sunday school at church, all of those are social activities that could be used if I'm speaking about those issues -- to say that me or any other Christian attorney actually engaged in unethical conduct for which we could be disbarred and banned from being able to practice law," said Ken Klukowski, Senior Counsel at First Liberty Institute, the largest non profit law firm dedicated to protecting religious freedom.

Former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III said this new rule threatens attorneys' free speech and religious liberty, and is a "clear and extraordinary threat" to the First Amendment.

"This proposal goes far beyond state law, violating the very spirit of the First Amendment," Meese said. "It could lead to the automatic disbarment of attorneys and judges over their private speech and beliefs."

Before the bill was passed, Meese coauthored a letter to the ABA with Kelly Shackelford, CEO and president of First Liberty Institute, calling for the proposed rule to be rejected.

"The fundamental purpose of our legal system is to ensure freedom," Shackelford said. "The law should protect the right of people to disagree with each other regarding important issues, not be used as a weapon to punish those who dissent from government mandated orthodoxy."

Klukowski says this bill not only puts religious attorneys at risk, but it will make it very difficult for religious liberty cases to obtain representation.

"This is designed to have a chilling effect on the entire legal profession to stay away from issues of abortion, marriage, gender, protecting churches; this is designed to say we're going to purge those people from the legal profession and make those who are left unwilling to represent people in institutions of faith going forward," Klukowksi said.

"Let's say you're a liberal atheist lawyer, you're not going to take on representation for churches, ministries, Christians because how can you talk about your case without having bar authorities come after you?" he said.

"You can't make this stuff up. This has never been done in 200 years," Klukowski said. "Most people just cannot imagine that this kind of oppressive censorship regime could ever move forward in a country like America."

For more information on Model Rule 8.4 and what is being done to fight it, visit First Liberty Institute.