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Relatedly, insofar as plaintiff asserts that defendants are likely to engage in
non-germane activities in the future, such claims are too speculative and remote to
support standing. Clapper v. Amnesty Int’l USA, 568 U.S. 398, 409, 409 (2013)
(“[T]hreatened injury must be certainly impending to constitute injury in fact, and
. . . allegations of possible future injury are not sufficient[.]” (emphasis in original)
(quotation omitted)). Additionally, the hypothetical nature of plaintiff’s concerns
renders the claim unripe. See, e.g., Orix Credit All., Inc. v. Wolfe, 212 F.3d 891, 895
(5th Cir. 2000) (“A case is generally ripe if any remaining questions are purely legal
ones; conversely, a case is not ripe if further factual development is required.”).
B. First Amendment Claims
The Fifth Circuit recently elaborated on the First Amendment’s applicability
to mandatory bar associations in Boudreaux and McDonald. In McDonald, the court
surveyed the two Supreme Court cases considering First Amendment challenges
pertaining to mandatory bar associations—Lathrop v. Donohue, 367 U.S. 820 (1961),
and Keller v. State Bar of California, 496 U.S. 1 (1990)—and noted that these cases
left several substantial First Amendment issues in this context unresolved. See id. at
243–44.
64
claims are therefore retrospective, and [Ex Parte] Young will not save them.”
(emphasis in original)). Additionally, because the Court concludes that plaintiff’s
claims are moot insofar as they pertain to previous conduct and policies that have
since been ceased and repealed, respectively, the Court declines to reach defendants’
argument that such claims are time-barred pursuant to the one-year statute of
limitations for § 1983 claims.
64 The court summarized Lathrop and Keller as follows: “Lathrop held that lawyers
may constitutionally be mandated to join a bar association that solely regulates the
legal profession and improves the quality of legal services. Keller identified
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