United States Sixth Circuit

District court decision that the courtesy and civility provisions of the Michigan Rules of Professional Conduct violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution is vacated and remanded with instructions to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction where: 1) plaintiffs lack standing because they have failed to demonstrate actual present harm or a significant possibility of future harm based on a single, stipulated reprimand; 2) plaintiffs have not articulated their intended speech and conduct; and 3) plaintiffs have not sufficiently established a threat of future sanction under the challenged provisions applied by the Michigan Supreme Court.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/20/2009
• Published 01/20/2009

Judges

• Before BOGGS, Chief Judge;  MERRITT and GRIFFIN, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Sixth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:  Margaret A. Nelson, Office of the Attorney General, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellants.  Michael R. Dezsi, Fieger, Fieger, Kenney, Johnson & Giroux, Southfield, Michigan, for Appellees.   ON BRIEF:  Margaret A Nelson, Michigan Department of Attorney General, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellants.  Michael R. Dezsi, Fieger, Fieger, Kenney, Johnson & Giroux, Southfield, Michigan, Richard L. Steinberg, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellees.