The State Bar of Texas has rescinded an invitation to NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson in light of a lawsuit brought against the Trump administration by the civil rights organization.
Johnson was set to speak at the bar’s annual meeting in San Antonio on Juneteenth, which commemorates the day in 1865 when the last of the enslaved learned they were free.
The bar rescinded Johnson’s invitation after it learned about the NAACP’s challenge to an executive order the president issued that month that seeks to dismantle the Department of Education, according to a statement from the group.
Trey Apffel, the state bar’s executive director, said in a statement to The Hill that the lawsuit violates regulations under the judicial branch of state government that limit political speech.
“The State Bar is under the oversight of the Supreme Court of Texas, which has directed that the State Bar must avoid even the appearance of politics in everything it does,” he said, in response to a request for comment.
“The State Bar of Texas is following these directives by choosing keynote speakers for its Annual Meeting who are not involved in active, high-profile political battles because to do otherwise could imply endorsement of their political views,” Apffel added.
Johnson has pushed back against the bar’s claims, according to The Associated Press.
“They have decided to censure free speech on notions of being political when it’s not political,” Johnson told the AP. “This is the State Bar of Texas. These are lawyers who are sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States. And nothing about our actions is contrary to the very principles that they have sworn to uphold.”
“And so, I find it ironic to say the least that a lawsuit would generate a rescission of the invitation,” he added.
The NAACP chief also criticized the bar for canceling his invitation even though the group allowed former U.S. Attorney General William Barr to speak at the 2023 meeting.
“We are in an intersection point in our democracy,” Johnson told the news wire. “Are we going to uphold the Constitution and ensure that this speech is something that we value, or are we going to take a different approach?”
Apffel, per the AP, contended that with the new rules in place, Barr would not have been permitted to speak.
The group has selected former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson to speak in Johnson’s place. Jefferson, appointed by Gov. Rick Perry in 2001, was the state’s first Black Justice and Chief Justice.
The NAACP did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
