White supremacist loses bid to have high court consider his appeal for law license

The Associated Press

06.26.00

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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has refused to hear the appeal of an Illinois white supremacist who says the state committee that denied him a law license violated his free-speech rights.

The court, acting without comment today in Hale v. Committee on Character and Fitness, turned away Matthew Hale's arguments that Illinois had established "orthodox religious and political beliefs to which (an aspiring lawyer) must subscribe as a condition of admission."

Hale, an East Peoria resident and leader of the segregationist World Church of the Creator, was denied a law license last summer even though he graduated from Southern Illinois University's law school and passed the state bar exam.

State bar officials noted that Hale had "dedicated his life to inciting racial hatred," and said he could not "do this as an officer of the court." The Illinois Supreme Court refused to hear Hale's appeal last November.

Hale's appeal said he could not lawfully be excluded from the legal profession "on the basis of his beliefs."

"In a time when political correctness runs rampant through our government and academia, and political, social and religious litmus tests are becoming the norm for appointment to the bench, the need for guidance from this court is acute," the appeal said.

Hale did not immediately return telephone calls made to his home or headquarters today. An answering machine message at his home tells callers they have reached "Matthew F. Hale, doctor of law."

Hale's lawyer, Robert Herman, likened Hale's treatment to that of Jehovah's Witnesses schoolchildren who were disciplined in the early 1940s for refusing to recite a mandatory Pledge of Allegiance.

When the Supreme Court overturned the mandatory policy in 1943, it said: "If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official high or petty can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein."

Herman argued, "Lawyers do not relinquish their constitutional rights as a condition for practicing law."

Illinois Bar officials urged the justices to turn down Hale's appeal, saying he had failed to prove he had "good moral character."

"As opposed to being excluded from Illinois' bar on the basis of beliefs or speech, Hale's past conduct, lack of credibility and inability to meet his burden of (good character) proof doomed his bar application," they said.

Shortly after the state committee's rejection of Hale, a former member of his group went on a shooting spree. Benjamin Smith targeted minorities, killing two people and injuring several others before killing himself.

Hale later said it was possible the shootings were the result of the committee's action, a remark state bar officials said further proved he lacked the "moral character necessary to satisfy even minimal bar admission standards."