Journalist, author and blogger David Neiwert (Orcinus) writes over at the new group blog American Street that the Florida Bar has sold its mailing list of member's names to a neo-nazi hate group, the National Alliance.

The letter with an eight-page brochure was sent to Florida criminal defense lawyers by the National Alliance, an offshoot of the American Nazi Party, which law enforcement and watchdog groups characterize as a violent, neo-Nazi organization.

The mailing contains anti-Semitic cartoons and an article titled “Building a New White World,” along with a letter calling on attorneys to join their organization. "We need legal talent to augment our technical, musical and writing talent," stated the letter, signed by Tampa unit coordinator Todd Weingart. "That’s why we’re writing to you today."

Attorneys who received the letter last week were doubly shocked to learn that the Bar sold the organization its mailing list and prepared labels for the group for a fee.

Naturally, lawyers are upset. But, it's clear that the Bar can't refuse to sell its list to any group based on ideology. As one esteemed Florida lawyer said in an e-mail earlier today,

The Bar should not take a position that stills the voice of anyone in the absence of the "clear and present danger" which has been adequately defined by the Supreme Court. In the balance, there is a greater threat to us all in pre-publication censorship than in the swill spread by hate mongers.

If the list is publicly available, then there should not be any discrimination practised, even if restraint of our emotions is painful.

We agree.