The successful completion of character and fitness requirements prior to bar admission dates back to at least the 18th century, when Massachusetts required that applicants provide references from their ministers. Other states soon instituted similar requirements aimed at improving the reputation of the legal profession. After all, the earliest lawyer jokes predate William Shakespeare, and the organized bar has long been concerned about its public perception. Following Massachusetts, both New York and North Carolina instituted requirements that mandated lawyers be of virtuous character and possess honesty and good integrity. Every jurisdiction in the nation has since adopted some form of character and fitness controls.

In the early days, these requirements sometimes had the precise purpose of prohibiting from the bar, among others, women, minorities, immigrants and members of unpopular political groups. In the late 1800s, the U.S. Supreme Court famously invoked an early character and fitness prohibition to prevent Myra Bradwell (and thus other women) from joining the Illinois bar because women could not enter into contracts without their husband’s consent and therefore were “incompetent to fully perform the duties and trusts that belong to the office of an attorney and counselor.” Bradwell was eventually allowed to join the bar and became the first woman to be admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court bar.