Constitutional Court of Thuringia: AfD fights against admission regulations for lawyers

Constitutional Court of Thuringia: AfD fights against admission regulations for lawyers

Things will get exciting in Weimar on Wednesday: The Thuringian Constitutional Court will discuss a delicate matter that is causing excitement not only in legal circles, but also in politics. The reason is a regulatory control procedure that was initiated by the AfD parliamentary group. It's about the controversial regulation in the Thuringian law on state legal examinations and the legal preparatory service.

This regulation allows applicants to be denied admission to the legal preparatory service if they work against the free-democratic basic order (fdGO) within the meaning of the Basic Law. According to Welt, the AfD wants to establish that this regulation violates the Thuringian constitution and is therefore void.

Context and concerns

The regulation, which was introduced in December 2022, is currently the focus of an intensive legal discussion. Both in Thuringia and nationwide there has been a debate for years about the constitutionality of legal trainees. A well-known ruling by the Federal Administrative Court last year showed that applicants for the legal preparatory service must meet minimum requirements for loyalty to the constitution. In a special case, the suitability of a member of the party “Der III. Weg” who had actively opposed the fdGO was questioned. This decision confirmed that political activities and membership in parties classified as extremist can lead to a negative assessment of suitability, as LTO emphasizes.

What is particularly piquant is that in another case, the Koblenz Administrative Court refused admission to a traineeship to a qualified lawyer who was temporarily a member of the AfD youth organization because he had published inhumane texts. This process shows how seriously the issue is taken and that the limits for admission to the legal preparatory service are set more strictly if there are doubts about loyalty to the constitution.

The judgment and its consequences

The Federal Administrative Court decided in another case that the rejection of an application for admission to the legal preparatory service due to anti-constitutional activities was legal. Overall, the plaintiff had not met the minimum requirements for the duty of loyalty to the constitution and was unable to prevail in the proceedings. The present regulation annoys the AfD, which considers it unconstitutional. This assessment will now be examined on September 10th. The latest hearing in the Thuringian Constitutional Court is eagerly awaited, and many observers are waiting to see what is now on the legal agenda.

The managing directors of politically active parties and legal institutions will take a close look at how the Constitutional Court will comment on this controversial regulation. A clear assessment may not only affect Thuringia, but could be groundbreaking for the training of future lawyers nationwide.