An Open Letter to the Vermont Bar Association: DEI has nothing to do with professional or legal skills, and everything to do with a particular political ideology.

by Deborah T. Bucknam, Esq.

The Young Lawyers Division of the Vermont Bar Association is hosting its Mid-Winter Thaw again this year in Montreal.  The Mid-Winter Thaw is an effective and fun way to earn Continuing Legal Education (“CLE”) credits while enjoying the city.  

This year, CLE credits include a program by the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project (“VAAP”) to satisfy the Diversity Equity and Inclusion (“DEI”) requirement needed to maintain a professional law license.  Vermont requires that all lawyers take 1 hour of DEI training every two years to maintain their licenses.  

DEI has nothing to do with professional or legal skills, and everything to do with a particular political ideology.  Worse, it is a destructive ideology which stereotypes people of all ethnicities, and its adherents, according to my lived experience, shame and censor anyone who dares not follow the DEI catechism.  

The political nature of DEI is demonstrated by VAAP’s  program description for the Mid-Winter Thaw. The description states that VAAP  values ”diversity [as a] cornerstone of our mission and model, and a driving force in our success.”  But its claim of diversity is belied by its  announcement in the course description about the new Trump administration.  It states that the Trump administration is “explicitly anti-immigrant” .  That is a lie. The former and future First Lady is an immigrant, Elon Musk is an immigrant from South Africa, and his co-chair of DOGE, Vivek Ramaswamy,  is the son of Indian immigrants.  Harmeet Dhillon, the nominee for assistant attorney general for civil rights, was born in India; as was Jayanta Bhattacharya, the new nominee to head the National Institutes of Health.  Marco Rubio, nominee for Secretary of State, Kashyap Patel, nominee for head of the FBI, are second generation Americans. 

Of course, we know that VAAP meant that President Trump does not believe that people should come into this country illegally, but VAAP did not make that distinction.  VAAP’s statement, is,  according to the Biden Administration definition, an example of disinformation.  There is a world of difference between being “anti-immigrant” and wanting to enforce our immigration laws.  President Trump has repeatedly stated that he is in favor of legal immigration.  VAAP’s disinformation signals the thrust of the program:  VAAP does not tolerate views on immigration other than its own. If  you disagree, you are “anti-immigrant”.   VAAP’s diversity cornerstone is frangible. 

VAAP has a perfect right to its political opinions.  But Vermont lawyers should not have to be forced to listen to any political views as a condition if their license. The United States Supreme Court made Americans—even lawyers– rights  explicit in its 1943 decision in Virginia State Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette:  “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.” 

The DEI program in Montreal must be also be viewed in context.   There has been an explosion of anti-Semitism in Canada over the last year. Since October 7, 2023, according to  The Free Press, there has been a 670% increase in anti-Semitic events, including drive-by shootings at Jewish schools in Montreal and Toronto, bomb threats at more than 100 Jewish institutions across the country, and Jewish businesses and synagogues have been routinely vandalized, including fire-bombed, across Canada.   Just a few weeks ago, Montreal was hit with an anti-Semitic riot where rioters threw smoke bombs, smashed windows and clashed with police.  Jews in Canada, including children,  have been harassed and intimidated.  Canadian Jews  are afraid for themselves and their children.  

If this kind of vicious hatred in Canada were directed at Blacks or LGBTQ folks, the Vermont Bar would surely have a serious discussion as to whether our Black and LGBTQ colleagues should be subjected to such potential risk, and therefore, whether the Mid-Winter Thaw should be held in a city potentially dangerous to them.   But, since Jews are not a favored ethnicity in DEI world, I can predict with certainty there will be silence about this threat at the Mid-Winter Thaw.   

VAAP tells us the Mid-Winter Thaw program will include discussion of  “practical steps to eliminate bias, expand accessibility, and build legal workplaces where everyone…can thrive.”  VAAP does not mean “everyone”.   DEI’s “diversity” philosophy only applies to favored groups.  Those favored groups do not include Jews or those who disagree with DEI’s ideology. 

I would urge leaders in the Vermont Bar to reconsider its support for the DEI requirement for licensure.