ACLU Sues Ky. Bar, Claims Inquiry Violated Lawyer’s Free Speech Rights

The ACLU of Kentucky has sued the state bar for investigating a lawyer because of a letter he wrote criticizing a legislative ethics commission.

The ACLU contends the state bar violated the free speech rights of lawyer John Berry, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports.

Berry had alleged in a letter that a legislative commission ruling didn’t comport with the evidence when it cleared Senate President David Williams of ethical wrongdoing in a fund-raising appeal.

The bar investigated Berry under a professional conduct rule that says “a lawyer shall not make a statement that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to its truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity of a judge, adjudicatory officer or public legal officer.”

The bar dismissed the complaint, but notified Berry “it appears” his conduct did not adequately comply with the rule, the story says.