Good question, and it appears it is inactive under court order.
See: “What happened to Michelle Obama’s law license?”
http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=105998
Records at the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois list her status as “voluntarily inactive and not authorized to practice law.”
It further states that Michelle license is “on court ordered inactive status.”
To search for lawyers not currently authorized to practice due to recent status changes, click here.
https://www.iardc.org/lawyersearch.asp
I searched and her name nor Barack Obama comes up.
The rest of the article explains it as follows:
James Grogan, deputy administrator and chief counsel for the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois, or ARDC, has been with the commission for 30 years. He told WND that on July 1, 1994, the Illinois Supreme Court entered an order allowing Michelle to be transferred to inactive status pursuant to Illinois Supreme Court rule 770.
The ARDC website explains, “Prior to November 1, 1999, former Supreme Court Rule 770 provided for a proceeding in the Court for any voluntary transfer to inactive status, whether because of some incapacitating condition or solely as a matter of the lawyer’s preference because the lawyer would not be practicing law.”
Grogan explained, “At the time, the only way to go on inactive status was to do what she did – which was to file a petition in the Illinois Supreme Court.”
He said attorneys often filed a petition for 770 when they wanted to pursue other careers, retire or begin raising a family.
“At the time, this happened all the time,” he said. “Our office would have to file what’s known as a consent.”
Grogan said his office would have immediately alerted the court in a public filing if there had been reason to believe she should face disciplinary action.
“We filed a consent in Michelle Obama’s case in which we had no objection to her transferring to inactive status,” he said. “In the event that she did go on inactive status and she engaged in any disbarrable offenses, there would be a disciplinary case of public record.”
He continued, “Just because someone goes on inactive it doesn’t deprive us of the jurisdiction to prosecute.”
Inundated by numerous 770 filings that each required a separate court ruling, the Illinois Supreme Court later simplified the inactivation process. In 2005, after Barack Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate, he changed his status to inactive as well.
“By 2005, which is several years later than his wife, the rule had changed such that you no longer had to file a petition that was such a pain for the court,” Grogan explained. “Instead, the court had changed it to two types of status: inactive or retired. Either situation involves merely sending a letter to us basically saying, ‘I want to transfer to inactive status.’”
Active lawyers are required to pay $289 each year and take 30 hours of Continuing Legal Education, or CLE, every two years. Under inactive status, attorneys are not required to take the courses, but they must pay $105 each year. “Inactive” registrants are not authorized to practice law. Lawyers who retire do not have to pay fees or take courses.
“A lot of people who aren’t practicing say, ‘Why bother?’” Grogan said.
Barack Obama remained listed as inactive until he retired this year.
Read more: What happened to Michelle Obama’s law license? http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=105998#ixzz1QRfi5LjM
Nothing worse than half-truths.