No. 24-1271

Malik Leigh v. State Bar of Florida

Lower Court: Florida
Docketed: 2025-06-13
Status: Denied
Type: Paid
Response Waived
Tags: civil-rights due-process equal-protection first-amendment professional-conduct racial-discrimination
Key Terms:
AdministrativeLaw ERISA DueProcess FirstAmendment
Latest Conference: 2025-09-29
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether disciplining or disbarring a civil rights attorney for speech critical of judicial bias and racial injustice violates the First Amendment, and whether racially disparate treatment in professional discipline violates the Equal Protection Clause

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

1. Whether disciplining or disbarring a civil rights attorney for speech critical of judicial bias and racial injustice violates the First Amendment, especially when the alleged conduct involved no harm to clients, no criminality, and was overtly expressive in nature. 2. Whether the racially disparate treatment and eventual disbarment of Petitioner, while white attorneys with more egregious conduct were not disciplined, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. 3. Whether the Florida Supreme Court ’s arbitrary procedures, reliance on tainted referrals, and imposition of disproportionate sanctions violated Petitioner ’s rights to procedural and substantive Due Process. 4. Whether the Thirteenth Amendment affords parens patriae special protection to Black Americans (descendants of Freedmen) and imposes a strict constitutional liability standard on federal and state actors to prevent any badge or incident of racial subjugation —violated here by the targeting, discipline, and disbarment of Petitioner for racial truth-telling.

Docket Entries

2025-10-06
Petition DENIED.
2025-07-02
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/29/2025.
2025-06-18
Waiver of right of respondent State Bar of Florida to respond filed.
2025-06-11

Attorneys

Malik Leigh
Malik Leigh — Petitioner
State Bar of Florida
Mark L. MasonThe Florida Bar, Respondent