Board member urges Washington Bar to adopt statement as national legal events accelerate

A board member who spoke during public comment urged the Washington State Bar Association to adopt a resolution or formal statement addressing what he described as rapid and destabilizing national legal and political events.

Thomas Mengert, called to speak during the board’s public comment period, said he has watched developments "we've never seen before" and asked the Bar to "take note of what is happening as it happens" and to express guidance and discontent to the membership. Mengert cited actions he said were occurring in Minnesota and raised broader concerns about the legal environment, mentioning fund withdrawals from diversity and inclusion initiatives and referencing the Insurrection Act in describing the speed and scale of recent events.

Mengert asked the Bar to consider adopting "some resolution or something that can take note of what is happening," but the transcript shows no formal referral, vote or specific resolution text introduced at the meeting. Board moderators interrupted when the speaker's allotted time expired and thanked him; no formal Board action on the request was recorded in the provided transcript.

The speaker described longstanding experience in the profession and referenced a 2016 book he authored; the meeting record contains some inconsistent biographical elements in his remarks (the transcript states a year of bar entry that does not align with other biographical detail). The record does not resolve that discrepancy.

Next procedural steps were not recorded in the transcript; the request for a resolution may require committee discussion or an item on a future agenda.