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State bar chiefs urge presidential bets to act on civil justice issues
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Posted on Oct 21 2008
State bar presidents from across the country, including Maya Kara of the CNMI Bar Association, have joined together, calling on presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama to address a number of critical legal issues and policy topics confronting the nation during their respective bids for the White House.
Signed by the leaders of 33 state bar associations, a letter focusing on substantive legal issues and challenges that lawyers, citizens and state bar presidents confront on a daily basis was sent to each candidate’s campaign staff. The letter emanated from a summit recently convened by New York State Bar Association President Bernice K. Leber in New York City.
Dated Oct. 8, the letter asks the candidates to respond to a number of questions concerning a range of important areas, including expanding civil legal services and access to justice for the poor, maintaining a fair and impartial judiciary, working to depoliticize the Justice Department, and infusing civics education into public schools to enhance children’s knowledge of the central role played by the justice system in American society.
Following the election in November, the bar presidents will ask the newly-elected President to meet with them in Washington, D.C. next April in order to discuss the President’s program on legal and justice system issues.
In addition to Bernice K. Leber, president of the New York State Bar Association, the list of signatories represents leaders of state bar associations from throughout the nation, including Maya B. Kara, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Bar Association.
The 74,000-member New York State Bar Association is the largest voluntary state bar association in the nation and was founded in 1876. [B][I](PR)[/I][/B]
