waterworld
A couple of factual notes: First, Bill Clinton was not disbarred. He agreed to a five-year suspension.
Second, just for Kootch: the ABA does not license lawyers to practice, does not discipline lawyers, and has no power to take away lawyers’ licenses. The ABA is a private professional association, not an agency with regulatory control over the practice of law.
Clinton was licensed to practice in Arkansas in 1973. He went on inactive status in 1990, meaning he was no longer practicing law at all when most of this stuff arose. When judge Susan Webber Wright held Clinton in contempt, she also referred the matter to the Arkansas Committee on Professional Conduct. The Committee did not disbar Clinton; his case resolved with an agreed order to a five year suspension.
Clinton was also a member of the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court. Lawyers don’t need to join the Supreme Court bar to practice law, but they do need to join if they want to argue cases in the Supreme Court. And lots of lawyers join just so they can hang the certificate. I don’t know why Clinton was a member. Anyway, after judge Wright held Clinton in contempt, the Supreme Court ordered him to show cause why he should not be disbarred from that Court. He chose to resign instead.
Dobro’s right about the underlying issues, in my view. There are, and were, lots of reasons to be suspicious of Paula Jones’ case against Clinton. The federal judge who heard the case — and slammed Clinton for lying in the deposition — ultimately held that Jones’ claims were “lacking in merit.” Just as important, the judge said that her decision would have been the same even if Clinton had told the truth. That’s another way of saying that the thing he lied about — having a sexual relationship with Lewinsky — was not material to Jones case. The reason that matters, legally, is that a perjury charge will not stand if the falsehood was not material to the issues under consideration. Judge Wright’s finding of immateriality pretty much eliminated any possibility of a perjury prosecution.