No. 24-1271

Malik Leigh v. State Bar of Florida

Lower Court: Florida
Docketed: 2025-06-13
Status: Denied
Type: Paid
Response Waived
Tags: civil-rights due-process equal-protection first-amendment professional-conduct racial-discrimination
Latest Conference: 2025-09-29
Question Presented (from Petition)

1. Whether disciplining or disbarring a civil rights
attorney for speech critical of judicial bias and racial
injustice violates the First Amendment, especially
when the alleged conduct involved no harm to clients,
no criminality, and was overtly expressive in nature.

2. Whether the racially disparate treatment and eventual
disbarment of Petitioner, while white attorneys with
more egregious conduct were not disciplined, violates
the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment.

3. Whether the Florida Supreme Court 's arbitrary
procedures, reliance on tainted referrals, and
imposition of disproportionate sanctions violated
Petitioner 's rights to procedural and substantive Due
Process.

4. Whether the Thirteenth Amendment affords parens
patriae special protection to Black Americans
(descendants of Freedmen) and imposes a strict
constitutional liability standard on federal and
state actors to prevent any badge or incident of
racial subjugation —violated here by the targeting,
discipline, and disbarment of Petitioner for racial
truth-telling.

Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether disciplining or disbarring a civil rights attorney for speech critical of judicial bias and racial injustice violates the First Amendment, and whether racially disparate treatment in professional discipline violates the Equal Protection Clause

Docket Entries

2025-10-06
Petition DENIED.
2025-07-02
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/29/2025.
2025-06-18
Waiver of right of respondent State Bar of Florida to respond filed.
2025-06-11

Attorneys

Malik Leigh
Malik Leigh — Petitioner
State Bar of Florida
Mark L. MasonThe Florida Bar, Respondent