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Victor R. Marshall v. Supreme Court of New Mexico

Paid petition · Supreme Court of New Mexico, No. S-1-SC-37698 · judgment January 13, 2022


Certiorari denied · May 31, 2022
Pre-decision estimate: 2% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Question presented

Does the First Amendment permit a state to suspend a lawyer from practice indefinitely because it found statements in a motion, in which the lawyer sought to recuse a judge in a pending case, were frivolous and impugned the judge’s integrity, when there was no showing that the statements were knowingly false or made in bad faith, or that any person, including the judge, was injured by those statements? Does the First Amendment permit a state that has suspended a lawyer from practice to forbid that lawyer from assisting his former clients in obtaining replacement counsel in complex lawsuits, but instead, with no allegations of harm to clients, limit him to informing his clients of the state’s lawyer referral service?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Alan B. Morrison
George Washington Law School

For respondent
Jane Gagne
Disciplinary Board of the New Mexico Supreme Court

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. May 31 2022
    Petition DENIED.
  2. May 10 2022
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 5/26/2022.
  3. Apr 26 2022
    Waiver of right of respondent Supreme Court of New Mexico to respond filed.
  4. Apr 07 2022
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due May 11, 2022)