No. 24-6183

Robert M. Joost v. Massachusetts Board of Bar Examiners

Lower Court: Massachusetts
Docketed: 2024-12-20
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
Response WaivedIFP
Tags: bar-admission constitutional-rights legal-education legal-practice occupational-freedom professional-qualification
Key Terms:
AdministrativeLaw DueProcess JusticiabilityDoctri
Latest Conference: 2025-02-21
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether the Massachusetts bar's educational requirements violate a legal practitioner's constitutional rights by preventing admission based on extensive legal experience rather than formal academic credentials

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

No question identified. : ‘ Questlon Presented I. Whether, under the particular facts of this case, the Respondents and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have violated Petitioner’s constitutional rights by refusing to allow him to take the bar exam because he does not have a formal education consisting of a four-year college degree and a three-year law school degree by an accredited ABA law school, when, in fact, Petitioner is fit and capable of representing clients in the courts and before other entities owing to his more than 50 years of legal experience in writing briefs, memorandum of law, complaints, etc_—including more than a dozen petitions for certiorari to this Court and several briefs to the several U.S. courts of appeals—and conducting trials when permitted, all of which is equal to, or better than a formal education, and in fact is more in line with “reading law” and apprenticeship that was in existence at the foundation of the United States? JI. Whether the Respondents and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are violating Petitioner’s constitutional rights by denying him the right to | pursue his chosen occupation—that is, representing people in legal actions before the courts and other entities? i.

Docket Entries

2025-02-24
Petition DENIED. Justice Kagan took no part in the consideration or decision of this petition. See 28 U. S. C. §455(b)(3) and Code of Conduct for Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, Canon 3B(2)(e) (prior government employment).
2025-01-23
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/21/2025.
2025-01-17
Waiver of Board of Bar Examiners of right to respond submitted.
2025-01-17
Waiver of right of respondent Board of Bar Examiners to respond filed.
2024-12-03
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due January 21, 2025)

Attorneys

Board of Bar Examiners
Carol A. Kelly — Respondent
Carol A. Kelly — Respondent
Robert M. Joost
Robert M. Joost — Petitioner
Robert M. Joost — Petitioner