The high court bid of a rejected applicant to the Illinois bar is raising fresh questions about whether members of state bar admissions boards are best suited to make decisions about candidates’ mental disabilities, especially amid calls across the legal industry to take mental health issues more seriously.
Thomas Skelton in June urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case so it can clarify whether the Americans with Disabilities Act is applicable to considerations of admission to state bars, and whether an applicant’s disability and any related “reasonable” accommodations should be factors to be considered in making such determinations, according to his petition for certiorari.
Skelton had requested conditional admission, a practice in which he’d be admitted to the bar, but his ongoing mental health treatment would be supervised by the Illinois Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission, the agency responsible for disciplining attorneys in Illinois, for an agreed upon