Applicants to practice law in New York are required to answer an inquiry about their criminal and juvenile histories—and the New York City Bar Association says this question violates the “spirit and letter” of state law and deepens racial inequities in the profession and should be amended.

In a letter to the court system’s administrative board earlier this month, the city bar said that the only licensing bodies in New York that maintain that they are fully exempt from the state law prohibiting questions about applicants’ juvenile histories and certain aspects of their criminal histories are the court system and entities that issue weapons permits.