By Daniel Horwitz:
Briefing is officially complete in Gluzman v. Tennessee Board of Law Examiners—the case of the “obviously very, very qualified” Vanderbilt Law School student who graduated Vanderbilt with an eye-popping 3.919 GPA but was still denied even the opportunity to take the Tennessee bar exam because he earned his undergraduate degree and his first law degree in his birth country of Argentina. The case is now awaiting a ruling from the Tennessee Supreme Court.
While his case has been pending, Mr. Gluzman took and passed the New York bar exam on his first attempt. However, rather than uprooting his family unnecessarily, he still hopes to be able to take the bar exam in Tennessee and practice law near his wife’s business in Memphis.
The briefing in Gluzman v. BLE features the involvement of three leading national conservative groups, which have argued that the Board’s crippling regulations violate Mr. Gluzman’s fundamental right to earn a living free from irrational government overreach. Tennessee’s two flagship law schools—Vanderbilt Law School and the University of Tennessee College of Law—also filed petitions in the case after seeing students disenroll from their law programs once the Board began implementing its new protectionist regulations. All parties’ briefs in the case are available below.
–Petitioner Maximilano Gluzman’s Principal Brief
–Brief of Respondent the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners
–Petitioner Maximiliano Gluzman’s Reply Brief
–Brief of Amici Curiae The Beacon Center, Cato Institute, and Goldwater Institute
–Petition of Vanderbilt Law School and University of Tennessee College of Law
Mr. Gluzman’s battle against the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners has attracted national media attention due in part to the Board’s refusal to permit Mr. Gluzman and other lawyers “from the vast majority of countries around the world” from ever being able to take the Tennessee bar exam regardless of their qualifications. In Mr. Gluzman’s case, the Board’s policy is also particularly difficult to justify, because the Board itself has formally acknowledged that Mr. Gluzman is “obviously a very, very qualified person.” Selected news coverage about the case is available below.
-Nashville Post: Argentine lawyer challenging Tennessee Board of Law Examiners
-Nashville Post: National conservative groups join local bar fight
-Above the Law: State Bars Foreign Student From Bar Exam — Next Stop, State Supreme Court
-ABA Journal: Vanderbilt law prof who taught Argentine LLM student backs his bid to take the bar exam
-The Tennessean: How Tennessee discriminated against a talented Vanderbilt law grad
-Cato At Liberty Blog: Even Lawyers Have the Right to Earn an Honest Living
-Beacon Center Blog: Banned From the Bar Exam
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