After months of studying the heated issue, California's state bar told state Supreme Court justices this week that they could justifiably lower the bar exam pass score. Or, just as justifiably, they could leave it where it is, the bar said.

As the Supreme Court mulls what to do, many California-licensed lawyers have already made clear that they want the 144 pass score, also known as a cut score, to stay right where it is. More than 34,000 attorneys responded to a recent bar survey about the issue. Nearly 80 percent of those respondents said the bar shouldn't lower the cut score despite pressure from law school deans, students and lawmakers to do just that.

Lawyers, mostly writing for themselves and not their firms or organizations, flooded the bar with public comments—emails, online survey responses and letters—that are posted on the bar's website.

Here are some excerpts—in categories we created—of what some of those California lawyers told bar officials in the public comments:

Wait a second … Maybe the score is too high.

Jody Brewster, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom: “As a partner in a very large law firm, I have witnessed highly competent practicing attorneys licensed in other jurisdictions prepare for and fail the CA bar exam. I have also been privy to the scores some of these applicants received, and it was clear that had they taken the bar exam in almost any other state in the country they would have passed. The result is that it is extremely difficult to relocate attorneys to CA based on the needs of the firm and our clients, even though the attorney has already demonstrated much more than the minimal competency required to practice law.”

Marti Potiriades, Office of Sacramento County Counsel: “Real people, young people, have put their lives on hold, have incurred thousands of dollars in student loans, have incurred thousands in bar prep classes, lost time with their families, have job applications in suspense, due to the extreme length of law school itself, compounded by sadistic standards, compounded by intolerable waiting time for results. As a practicing attorney with a child now waiting for bar results, I support the view of the 20 CA law school deans who endorse immediate, meaningful changes.”