Before I begin blogging about legal positivism, I want to go on the record and send the following succinct message to the Florida Board of Bar Examiners: it’s time to pull your heads out of the sand and cancel the in-person July bar exam. Students who graduated from an ABA-accredited law school should be awarded a provisional license to practice law, subject to good behavior. (Full disclosure: Although I am licensed to practice law in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico 🇵🇷, I am a law professor in the State of Florida.)
They can implement social distancing measures as the bar is taken in a very large room. What would they be able to do with a provisional licensee?
I would support your statement of the Florida Board of Bar Examiners would disclose what social diatancing measures it has in mind, but let’s get real, no one wants to take a two-day exam wearing an uncomfortable mask or a face shield. In any case, the bar exam (in my view) is an illegal restraint of trade. You don’t need a license to dance ballet, sing opera, or play pro-baseball. You don’t even need a license to teach law!