State Bar is Subject to Public's Eye

Joshua King missed the point in his recent opinion piece regarding a lawsuit filed against the State Bar by an economist and law professor who is seeking sensitive information about applicants for the bar examination (“State Bar Should Let Some Sunshine In,” April 9). This case is not about sunshine or transparency; it is about protecting the confidentiality of raw personal data submitted to the bar by applicants who never imagined their information would be made public.

Richard Sander, a UCLA law professor, sued the Bar in 2008 after both the Committee of Bar Examiners and the Board of Governors rejected his request that the Bar provide data about applicants for the bar exam. Sander wants to use the data to test his “mismatch theory” that affirmative action actually hurts minority students because they cannot compete successfully with nonaffirmative action students at top-tier law schools. The State Bar determined that releasing data about applicants’ race, grades, LSAT scores and bar pass rates could violate promises to law students of privacy and limited use of the records.