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Arkansas Supreme Court committee files suit to disbar Clinton
First effort to strip sitting president of law license
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In a disciplinary action never before taken against a sitting U.S. president, an Arkansas Supreme Court panel has filed suit to strip Bill Clinton of his license to practice law "The conduct of Mr. Clinton ... was motivated by a desire to protect himself from the embarrassment of his own conduct," the Arkansas State Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct declared in its five-page lawsuit, filed on Friday at about 3:45 p.m. (4:45 p.m. EDT) with the Pulaski County Circuit Court clerk in Little Rock. Clinton has 30 days to respond. The committee recommended in May that Clinton's Arkansas law license be withdrawn, in the wake of accusations he gave misleading testimony under oath in the Paula Jones case. That deposition, made January 17, 1998, became the basis of an independent counsel investigation, and the president's impeachment. The president's attorneys said they plan to fight the disbarment. "We fundamentally disagree with the complaint filed today and will vigorously defend against it," said Clinton's attorney, David E. Kendall. Nixon lost law license after leaving officeA judge has yet to be assigned to the case. Judge John Ward, whom Clinton appointed to a chancery court position in 1989, was randomly assigned the case by computer on Friday but he stepped aside immediately. The court closed before a new judge could be named. Whoever presides will oversee the gathering of evidence and the trial. That judge alone -- not a jury -- will decide whether Clinton should be allowed to practice law. Either side can appeal the judge's decision to the state Supreme Court. Marie-Bernarde Miller, a lawyer and former nun who this year successfully argued to remove a sitting judge from office, was selected to handle the state's case. This is the first time an effort has been made to disbar a sitting president. New York pulled Richard Nixon's law license, but that came after he resigned the presidency August 9, 1974, during the Watergate scandal. Expert: Committee sending messageOne Arkansas legal expert believes the state Supreme Court's Committee of Professional Conduct intends to make an example of Clinton by taking such an unusually harsh step. In the past, the committee has sought to disbar only those attorneys who were convicted of serious offenses such as drug-related matters and fraud, said John DiPippa, who teaches at the University of Arkansas Law School in Little Rock. "It may simply be that the committee considered ... disbarment necessary to send a message," DiPippa said. DiPippa said that in Arkansas anyone can file a complaint with the state Supreme Court panel. Most complaints are screened by the panel's executive director, who has "a lot of discretion to push complaints forward or even settle," DiPippa said. He said the punishment ranges from a private letter of caution to disbarment. When the professional conduct committee met May 19, eight of the panel's 14 regular and auxiliary members recused themselves -- five citing ties to Clinton or the Democratic Party -- and the remaining six members said Clinton should no longer carry an Arkansas law license. Clinton said his lawyers had told him that if he were to be treated like other lawyers, there would be "no way in the world" that he could lose his license. From deposition to possible disbarmentThe conservative Southeastern Legal Foundation and U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright referred the Clinton case to the Arkansas Supreme Court's professional conduct panel, saying the president lied under oath in the Jones case by denying he had a sexual relationship with Lewinsky, the former White House intern. Clinton gave a sworn deposition in the Jones case in January 1998, saying "I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky." On August 17, 1998, he told a federal grand jury that he had had an inappropriate relationship with her but said the conduct he engaged in with Lewinsky did not meet the definition of sex that was given at the start of the deposition. That deposition, coupled with the public revelation of the Lewinsky affair just days later, ignited a firestorm that culminated in the president's impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives in late 1998, and his subsequent acquittal in a Senate trial early in 1999 Wright found Clinton in contempt for lying under oath in the Jones case. She fined the president $90,000. Clinton, a licensed lawyer since September 7, 1973, was attorney general of Arkansas from 1977-79 and once taught at the University of Arkansas law school. He has not practiced law since the early 1980s, between his first and second terms as Arkansas governor. Correspondent Bob Franken and The Associated Press contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES: Disbarment recommendation unusually harsh, expert says RELATED SITES: Arkansas Bar Association | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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