In 1988 New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams, and five New York State Legislators filed an illegal, meritless complaint with the Disciplinary Committee of the Second Judicial Department against Attorney Alton H. Maddox, Jr.

As a result of this complaint and without due process, Attorney Maddox has been indefinitely suspended from the practice of law for 25 years.  A legislative act that singles out an individual or group for punishment without a trial is called a Bill of Attainder, which is in violation of the U. S. Constitution, Article I, Section 9 paragraph 3: "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law will be passed."

Attorney Maddox has never been convicted of any crime, never been held in contempt of court, no client has ever accused him of betraying his or her trust, never filed a disciplinary complaint against him or accused him of acting in any way in violation of the Code of Responsibility. In a cover story in the Washington Post in 1987, Attorney Maddox was accurately called, “One Man’s Civil Rights Movement in the Courtroom”, because he won unwinnable cases of ”unpopular” defendants, and he did so pro bono. It is because of his successes in the courtroom, and especially that he champions the causes of his people (historically oppressed), that he has been targeted, censored and barred from the courtroom. 

On the contrary, and by a double standard, Chief Judge, Sol Wachtler of the New York Court of Appeals, Attorney Albert Pirro, and Attorney Michael Dowd are all convicted felons and have been returned to the practice of law.  In fact, Governor Mario Cuomo ended the suspension of Michael Dowd allegedly for “humanitarian” reasons and created a director position for him in a state agency.

 The injustices committed against the Black community under the color of law, need to be challenged on every front: Executive, Judicial and Legislative. Our lives do matter, and we are being denied the right to legal representation.  Under the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution, we have a right to legal representation of our choice, and as a historically oppressed class, the right to pursue Class Action in the courts to obtain justice.