An opinion Wednesday by Chief Judge Thomas Kleeh (N.D. W. Va.) in Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism, Inc. v. Pickens deals with a rule of the West Virginia state bar, which is organized as a government agency under the control of the state supreme court. The rule provides,
The Board of Governors [of the state bar] shall consist of the following twenty-five voting members and one non-voting member:
- The president, president-elect, vice president, and immediate past president;
- One governor from each of the sixteen State Bar districts set forth in Bylaw 5.04;
- Three additional governors from State Bar District Eight;
- One African-American lawyer elected as described in Bylaw 5.06;
- The Chairperson of the Young Lawyer Section; and
- The Dean of the West Virginia University College of Law, as a non-voting member.
The long opinion focuses mostly on procedural matters, but it also concludes that "The Fifteenth Amendment applies to State Bar elections because the elections are state-sanctioned and involve public issues":
