ABA DELEGATE REPORT
COURT
COUNSEL
ABA DELEGATE REPORT
ABA Delegate Report Winter 2025
POORAD RAZAVI
With that said, the following is a summary of a few of the major proposed Resolutions that were approved by the House:
• Opposes government action punishing or threatening lawyers, law firms, or other organizations for representation of clients or causes disfavored by the government.
• Supports the First Amendment rights of public employees at all level of government, including judges and lawyers, and employees or agents of those judges and lawyers, to speak about matters of public concern without fear of retaliation.
• Urges the Executive Branch and Congress to adopt policies and enact legislation that ensures due process protections, including meaningful notice, opportunity to be heard, and access to legal counsel, in all proceedings involving denial of entry, visa revocation, rescission of lawful permanent residency, or removal from the United States, including those based upon alleged security or criminal concerns.
• Supports the academic freedom of American universities, colleges and law schools; and opposes governmental efforts to impose the government’ s viewpoint with respect to the academic qualifications of students or faculty, the content of curricula or specific courses.
• Opposes the adoption of civil or criminal laws that impose criminal and civil penalties or rights deprivations based on an individual’ s conduct during pregnancy or its outcome.
• Urges state, local, territorial, and tribal governments that impose sales, use, or similar taxes on menstrual discharge collection devices(“ MDCDs”) to repeal those taxes, and urges Congress to pass legislation to prohibit sales, use, or similar taxes imposed by state, local, territorial, and tribal governments on MDCDs.
• Urges the United States and all other governments to recognize, stop, and prevent further human rights violations against Palestinians and Israelis everywhere, above all in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel.
• Urges federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal governments, and local school boards to develop and implement policies and protocols that provide uniform responses to incidents involving antisemitism and hate within K-12 public schools.
• Supports an interpretation of Article III constitutional standing under which competition between the parties’ goods or services is not a prerequisite to standing or required for an infringement claim under the Lanham Act in federal court or an appeal of a decision of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
• Encourages US and international governments to prevent and stop the ongoing and intensified human rights violations by the Government of Iran, including the use of capital punishment for non-serious crimes, torture, persecution of minorities, gender apartheid, LGBTQ oppression, persecution of civil society activists, suppression of fundamental freedoms, and denial of fair trials.
• Urges Congress to pass H. R. 154, or similar legislation, to establish a federal Election Day in every evennumbered year as a federal public holiday.
There will be another slew of resolutions prior to the ABA Mid-Year Meeting in San Antonio, Texas in February 2026. The proposed resolutions are available online on the Bar Association’ s website. Unfortunately, it appears that the Florida Bar will be barred from having any representation at these meetings. While all members of The Florida Bar will not be represented, I have been asked by the ABA State Delegate from Florida to consider being certified as a delegate from Florida to the ABA House of Delegates. If certified, members of the Palm Beach County Bar Association will continue to have my representation in the ABA. As always, if you have any questions or comments about Florida’ s future representation in the ABA, please do not hesitate to contact me( prazavi @ cohenmilstein. com).
COURT
COUNSEL
Hosted by PBCBA ' s Judicial Relations Committee
Every Third Friday of the Month 12:00 P. M.- 1:00 P. M. Register for FREE www. palmbeachbar. org
Engage with the Fifteenth Circuit Judiciary in a Unique Brown Bag Lunch Setting
PBCBA BAR BULLETIN 7