ABA DELEGATE REPORT
ABA DELEGATE REPORT
ABA Delegate Report Winter 2025
POORAD RAZAVI
Happy unnecessarily warm winter season to all. As you may know, the American Bar Association( ABA) just held its midyear conference in Phoenix, followed by its House of Delegates( HOD) session. As your ABA HOD representative, I want to provide you with an update of milestone developments that occurred during this session and beyond.
First off, as many of you likely heard by now, the ABA issued a statement expressing concern about the Constitutionality of the Executive actions taking place in Washington. In short, it states that irrespective of political affiliation or aspirations, the rule of law must be respected in the short term or it will fail in the long run. In just a span of weeks, the Executive office has attacked Constitutionally protected birthright citizenship, the U. S. Agency for International Development, and lawful DEI programs that seek to eliminate bias – it is unclear whether they take issue with the fundamental notions of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, or some combination thereof. The greatness of America has never been rooted in vengeance-based policymaking. The ABA statement can, and should, be read in its entirety here- https:// www. americanbar. org / news / abanews / aba-newsarchives / 2025 / 02 / aba-supports-the-ruleof-law /
With that said, the following is a summary of a few of the major proposed Resolutions that were approved by the House:
• Opposes the investigation or prosecution of bar associations by the federal government for activities protected by the First Amendment, including but not limited to advocacy for or implementation of DEI or DEIA policies; and urges modification of the Executive Order titled“ Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” to clarify that it shall not be enforced against bar associations or others in a manner that infringes on rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
• Urges Congress to pass federal legislation to eliminate federal case assignment mechanisms that predictably assign cases to a single United States District Judge without random assignment to judges in a District when such cases seek to enjoin or mandate the enforcement, or declaratory relief concerning enforcement of, a state or federal law or regulation.
• Encourages federal, state, local, territorial, tribal, and specialty courts to identify and adopt policies supporting security measures for courts in their jurisdiction.
• Urges all state, local, territorial, and tribal governments to enact legislation, regulations, or take judicial action to prohibit the disclosure of personally identifiable information of active or former government officials and employees, and the immediate family members with whom they share a residence.
• Urges the Supreme Court of the United States to modify the ethics code it adopted in 2023 and adopt a binding ethics code for the Supreme Court that is as strict as the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, adopted by the Judicial Conference of the United States, including a Supreme Court-adopted appropriate enforcement mechanism.
• Urges Congress to pass laws that provide permanent and complementary immigration pathways and visas for individuals who are forced to leave their habitual home; and urges the federal
PBCBA BAR BULLETIN 6 government to support vulnerable countries and communities in their efforts to advance prevention, preparedness, adaptation, and mitigation measures rapidly to avert, minimize, and address climate-related displacement.
• Urges Congress to enact legislation and the Executive Branch to adopt policies and regulations regarding the ineffective assistance of counsel policies that promote due process and ensure consistency in immigration proceedings and that are consistent with the standard articulated by the U. S. Supreme Court in Strickland v. Washington.
• Urges Congress to enact legislation authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to create and administer a post-disaster housing repair program.
• Urges K-12 public school educators and educational institutions to provide age-appropriate Holocaust and antisemitism education and curricula regarding Jewish history; and urges federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal governments to enact legislation to support and provide resources for the aforementioned curricula.
• Urges adoption of minimum continuing legal education(“ MCLE”) requirements which permit an attorney to earn up to four( 4) hours per year of MCLE credit by judging or coaching mock trials, moot courts, negotiation, arbitration, or mediation competitions at the law school, undergraduate, or high school levels, provided that such programs meet certain qualifying requirements.
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