Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday issued an opinion concluding that an American Bar Association Rule of Professional Conduct barring discriminatory conduct by its members would violate First Amendment rights if applied in his state.
ABA rule 8.4 (g), as modified at the organization’s annual convention, specifically forbids conduct that “the lawyer knows or reasonably should know is harassment or discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or socioeconomic status.”
