Fortuño signs Bar Association legislation

“This law does not eliminate the Bar Association. It defends the sacred concept of free association found in our Constitution,” Fortuño said. “They can’t make you belong to an association you don’t want to belong to, much less have you pay dues and later use the money to fund causes with which you do not agree.”

The Bar Association bill stemmed from complaints by pro-statehood attorneys about stands the group has made aligned with pro-independence views. For instance, in 2005, it hosted a wake for slain Los Macheteros leader Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, a militant independence supporters killed in a gunfight with FBI agents, at its headquarters in Miramar.

The bill was originally lodged in the House by New Progressive Party Rep. Liza Fernández and approved by the lower chamber in April. The legislation cleared the upper chamber Tuesday along party lines, with majority NPP senators voting in favor while Popular Democratic Party lawmakers voted against it.

Bar Association Arturo Hernández blasted the move as an “act of intolerance” and said the group would continue with plans to monitor Thursday’s general strike and provide legal assistance to any protester who might need it.

He also called Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz a “hypocrite” for approving the legislation. The Senate chief had pushed another bill that would have left the compulsory nature of the Bar Association intact but would have mandated that it’s voting procedures be expanded so that more island lawyers could participate in choosing its leadership.

Currently, a slim majority of states have mandatory bar associations.

The legislation makes membership in the Puerto Rico Bar Association voluntary and puts regulation of the legal profession squarely in the hands of the commonwealth Supreme Court. Island lawyers who decide to drop out of the Bar Association would still have to pay annual dues, but to the top court, to help defray the costs of groups providing pro-bono legal work to the island’s poor.