August 18, 2008
Office of the Clerk
Supreme Court of California
350 McAllister Street
San Francisco, CA 94102-4797
Re: Richard Sander, Joe Hicks and the California First Amendment Coalition vs.
State Bar of California
Esteemed Supreme Court Justices:
The Iranian American Lawyers Association (IALA) wishes to reaffirm our opposition to
the release of private Bar data to the above-noted parties. We strongly feel that our
membership’s privacy rights are paramount to the petitioners’ research objectives and
that wholesale disclosure would also violate our membership’s due process rights.
We continue to support the Committee of Bar Examiners’ position on this issue and
concur with its analysis that the State Bar holds this information in trust for its
membership.
We also join with the Black Women Lawyers, Langston Bar Association, California
Women Lawyers, Mexican American Bar Association, Latina American Lawyer
Association and the Multicultural Bar Alliance in opposing the efforts of the petitioners
to obtain private information surrounding members of the Bar.
We urge you to maintain the integrity of the private nature of the information the State
Bar has on each of us and plead that you, therefore, deny the request of the petitioners.
Sincerely,
Mitra Chegini
IALA President |
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