ALERT – Free Market Sues Texas Ethics Commission

Press Conference Today 2:00 p.m. in Austin

Today, Free Market Foundation is announcing its suit against the Texas Ethics Commission for a law that prohibits citizens from speaking out on who should be Speaker of the Texas House.  This unconstitutional law, enacted in 1973, bans you from spending “anything of value” to influence the Texas Speaker of the House race. As a private citizen, if you weighed in on the Speaker debate by sending letters, e-mails, faxes and other correspondence in bulk, you could be fined as much as $4,000 and thrown in jail for up to one year. What happened to government belonging to the people? 

President Kelly Shackelford, Director of Litigation Hiram Sasser, and Director of Media Nicole Hay are currently in Austin for a press conference at 2:00 p.m. today, demanding that the Texas Ethics Commission strike down this law as unconstitutional.  “To anyone with even the slightest interest in the First Amendment, this law is a disgrace,” says Free Market President Kelly Shackelford.