Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog
When Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton shows up in the news, usually he’s suing on behalf of the State of Texas. This time, however, he’s weighing in on the other side of a lawsuit, backing Michael Quinn Sullivan in his case against the Texas Ethics Commission before the Supreme Court.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is taking the unusual step of siding against the Texas Ethics Commission in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Rather than defending the state agency, he has filed an amicus brief supporting Michael Quinn Sullivan, a conservative activist who was president of Empower Texans at the time of the events in question.
Now Publisher of Texas Scorecard, which is also the source of this article.
The case centers on whether Sullivan should have been required to register as a lobbyist before communicating with lawmakers and the public about tax and spending policies.
The dispute dates back to 2014 when the Texas Ethics Commission fined Sullivan $10,000 for allegedly acting as an unregistered lobbyist. The TEC ruled that his efforts to inform legislators and the public—particularly through emails detailing his Fiscal Responsibility Index—qualified as lobbying under Chapter 305 of the Texas Government Code.
This has always seemed a very odd cranny for the Texas Ethics Commission to stick its nose into, but at that time Sullivan was quite a thorn in the side of then-speaker Joe Straus. Indeed, Sullivan was such a thorn in the side of the Straus/Bonnen/Phelan/Burrows cabal that Sullivan would eventually cause Dennis Bonnen to resign for offering Sullivan an unethical deal for press credentials in exchange for bringing pressure on certain GOP caucus members. It was a stupidly petty deal at the time, and appears even more so in retrospect. The TEC case certainly seems like someone doing the bidding to the cabal to shut Sullivan up.
Sullivan has spent the past decade fighting the ruling, arguing that the communications were protected free speech, not lobbying. He is now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.
Paxton, rather than backing the agency tasked with enforcing Texas lobbying laws, is arguing that the TEC’s enforcement is unconstitutional and represents a violation of First Amendment rights.
“No free citizen should have to register with the government and pay a special fee just to send letters or emails to the government about matters of public importance,” Paxton’s brief states, contending that the First Amendment does not allow government officials to regulate political speech in this way.
More:
https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=63050
