Monday, January 06, 2014

‘MORAL CHARACTER’ A REQUIREMENT TO JOIN THE BAR?

While I have absolutely no use for child molesters or those who enjoy watching child pornography, it’s sort of laughable that the Kentucky Supreme Court will deny someone a law license because he lacks the moral character required of a lawyer when all practicing lawyers are liars, many will cheat to win their cases, and some are outright thieves.

SEX OFFENDER SEEKS ADMISSION TO KENTUCKY BAR

Associated Press
January 5, 2014

A Kentucky man on a sex offender registry is pushing the state's Supreme Court to allow him to take the bar exam and become a practicing lawyer.

Guy Padraic Hamilton-Smith, of Lexington, plans to ask the justices by Jan. 13 to reconsider a decision that he lacks the moral character to join the bar.

Hamilton-Smith graduated in the top third of his law school class, but the Kentucky Supreme Court last month blocked him from taking the bar exam because he is on the registry.

Hamilton-Smith pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of matter portraying a sexual performance by a child in March 2007 and received a five-year suspended sentence. He was also required to register as a sex offender until 2027.

1 comment:

bob walsh said...

It reminds me of the scene out of
Alice's Restaurant where Arlo Guthrie has to prove he is moral enough to be drafted into the army "to kill women and babies and burn villages" after having been convicted of being a liter bug. Or the old joke about "How do you know when a lawyer is lying?" (When his lips are moving." But lawyers want to at least PRETNED they are moral combatants on a pristine battlefield rather than a pack of whores, so it is probably a pseudo-serious concern for them.