Law Religion Culture Review

Exploring the intersections of law, religion and culture. Copyright by Richard J. Radcliffe. All rights reserved.

Monday, June 20, 2005

Revenge of the Imputed Bar Exam Score, Part II.

Everyone was happy with the California State Bar's solution--imputing scores--to address the pilfering of essay answers given for the February bar exam. (See prior post here.)

All were satisfied--except those who received letters (e.g. here and here) informing them their bar cards would not be imminently forthcoming.

One recipient made a federal case out of it. Literally.

Read the lawsuit here. The plaintiff, a real estate broker and law school graduate, brought "the action on his own behalf for the relief of $43,000,000.00, Injunctive relief under 42 U.S.C. 1983, the United States Constitution, California Constitution, Antitrust laws of the United States, and Consent Decree entered into by the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) and the American Bar Association (ABA), and Federal and State Tort laws." (p. 1.)

Another notable excerpt: "Security at the Bar examination test site is very strict. Applicants are searched, probed, fingerprinted, have handwriting samples taken, scrutinized, videotaped and even followed in the restrooms and watched as we pee in the urinal.

"After the exam, I now learn that security and safety of the exams is so lax that an exam grader was hauling around the exams in their car, with no security, and no accountability as to what happened to the exams, and an utter disregard for the importance of the hard work and value of the intellectual property contained on the pages of the answers. That is CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE." (Complaint, para. 20.)

(HT: En Passant.)