Law Students Civil Rights Research Council, Inc. v. Wadmond

In these consolidated cases plaintiffs challenge, on First and Fourteenth Amendment grounds, certain New York statutes which contain the criteria for determining eligibility for admission to the bar.1 One of these statutes provides that an applicant shall be admitted if the admitting court is satisfied that he “possesses the character and general fitness requisite for an attorney and counselor-at-law.” New York Judiciary Law, § 90. The second statute provides that the applicant shall be admitted if, in addition, he has “furnished satisfactory proof to the effect that he believes in the form…