Nevada Bar Prez: So sorry about that!

Sorry about that.

That’s the gist of a brief message at the top of State Bar of Nevada President Alan Lefebvre’s most recent column in Nevada Lawyer magazine, the official publication of the Bar. Here’s an excerpt from the text, which is not yet available online:

“Journalistically, a column is opinion-based, and the last two of mine have caused hurt feelings and anger among some of our members,” Lefebvre wrote. “I apologize for that offense. I thank those who read and emailed me about the issue or called. I have responded to each individual who has taken the time to write.

But Lefebvre did much more than hurt feelings. He accused the attorney general of the state of Nevada of turning her back on her duty related to the state’s legal fight over the constitutional ban on gay marriage, and mocking the state as a “banana republic” for its legalization of medical marijuana. Many accused Lefebvre of bad legal research (at best) or ignoring the law (at worst).

You hurt somebody’s feelings when you say those pants make them look fat. When you’re the elected president of the state bar and you write a column in the Bar’s official publication, you speak from a position of authority that necessarily invokes the imprimatur of the organization.

Or does it? The Board of Governors of the State Bar included a note that assures members that the views expressed in the May issue of Nevada Lawyer “do not represent those of the Board of Governors, its individual members, or the State Bar of Nevada as a whole.”

“The Board of Governors assures all members of the bar and the public that the State Bar of Nevada does not support any use of the President’s Column for political statements,” the governors added. “The board has a policy that requires the state bar president to refrain from using the Nevada Lawyer to advance personal political viewpoints.”

Yeah, buddy! That’s my job!

Lefevbre also addressed that issue, writing that “neither of these last columns was read, let alone vetted or approved, by the Board of Governors in advance. None of the Board of Governors agree with my columns, nor were they asked. Is any opinion column bar policy? No.”

Lefebvre also confused a couple of issues in his column, writing rhetorically, “Should the editors of Nevada Lawyer have exercised prior restraint? Historically, the editors of Nevada Lawyer have not censored the president’s message.”

Yeah, “prior restraint” is when a court or other authority enjoins the publication of material. (SEE, Black’s Law Dictionary, Seventh Ed., “A governmental restriction on speech or publication before its actual expression.”) And “censorship” is when the government prohibits the publication of material. When a private organization that publishes material decides to review and not publish something absent any government interference, it’s called “editing.” And that’s an important distinction to understand, journalistically speaking.

The issue also includes seven dissenting letters to the editor (something of a record, I’m told; usually Nevada Lawyer doesn’t receive that many letters in an entire year). The letters were authored by individual lawyers, Dean Daniel Hamilton of the Boyd Law School, most of the professors of the Boyd Law School, the LGBT Section of the State Bar and attorneys affiliated with the group Freedom Nevada, all taking issue with Lefebvre’s May column on gay marriage.

I’ll post links to the magazine when they’re available.