This is really disturbing. Fortunately lawyers tend to be a contentious bunch so there will be lots of fur and paper flying about this. There is no justification of this sort of invasion of privacy unless there is a history of risk to self or others. Then there is an obligation for a thorough review.

This is discrimination, nothing less.

Markham's Behavioral Health

Connecticut's State Bar Examining committee is now asking attorney applicants to the state bar if they have been treated for depression along with other major psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia, and bi-polar illness acording to an article on Lawyer.com. This is already done in Colorado, Florida, Delaware, and Kentucky.

If Abraham Lincoln were alive, he would encounter several difficulties gaining admittance to the Connecticut Bar -- assuming he deserved his reputation both for honesty and for 'melancholia.' That's because the state's Bar Examining Committee has re-introduced depression as one of the conditions listed on the mental health section of the bar application. Depression made the list in July 2000, but public outcry led to its removal -- until now.

The amended question 35 for the July 2006 application is one of several changes that has reignited a fiery reaction from opponents, who view the wording of the CBEC's mental health inquiry -- which includes a request for psychiatric records -- as an unconstitutional invasion of privacy.