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2/21/01

SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA NO. 2000-OB-1360 ALFREDA TILLMAN BESTER VERSUS LOUISIANA SUPREME COURT COMMITTEE ON BAR ADMISSIONS

ORIGINAL PROCEEDING ON PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS, INJUNCTIVE RELIEF AND DECLARATORY RELIEF

TRAYLOR, J.* The petitioner, Alfreda Tillman Bester, seeks to compel the Committee on Bar Admissions, a body of lawyers created to assist this Court in its constitutionally mandated function of deciding who should be admitted to the practice of law in Louisiana, to produce her "conditionally failed" February, 2000 Bar Examination, as well as "model answers" or "grading guidelines" prepared by the members of the Committee on Bar Admissions. This demand squarely implicates our inherent authority to regulate all facets of the practice of law in Louisiana, including the admission of persons to the Bar. Because we exercise plenary, inherent authority in the area of bar admissions, and because at the time the subject bar examination was administered, bar applicants had no right to review their bar examinations, or any right to review the grading guidelines or model answers prepared by Committee Examiners, we deny relief. Facts The petitioner was notified by the Committee on Bar Admissions that she had conditionally failed the February, 2000 Louisiana State Bar Examination.

*

James Gulotta, Associate Justice Pro Tempore, sitting for Lemmon, J.

The petitioner then forwarded a written public records request, asking to view her own bar examination, together with the Committee's model answers/grading guidelines. The Committee on Bar Admissions, acting through counsel, denied the petitioner's request. Petitioner then invoked the original jurisdiction of this Court by filing a "Petition for Writ of Mandamus, Injunctive Relief and Declaratory Relief . . ." seeking to compel release of the subject bar examination and Committee grading papers. The Committee on Bar Admissions answered the petition, arguing, inter alia, that Ms. Bester is not entitled to the information she requests. Sources of this Court's Inherent Authority Governmental power in Louisiana is shared by three separate branches of government, as Article II,

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