That’s the reality that Paul “Pete” Palmer has faced from his Waxahachie high school administrators since they suspended him from class for wearing the simple ‘John Edwards ‘08’ t-shirt you see in this photo. Does it look dangerous to you? Any offensive speech? Disturbance of the peace? In fact, the school district itself told him the language isn’t offensive, it just isn’t approved. Waxahachie school district onlyallows students to wear approved messages like “We love Waxahachie band” or “Go Longhorns.”
Everyone should appreciate Texas’ schools desire to create a safe learning environment for students, and some have found uniforms even necessary to accomplish this goal. But even uniform policies across Texas have caveats for political and religious speech that is protected under the 1st Amendment of the Constitution. This is essential to every students’ free speech. What’s the danger of censorship? If codes like that of Waxahachie school district’s code were allowed, then students couldn’t wear t-shirts saying “I love Jesus,” or “Support our troops.” Free Market’s legal division is representing Palmer in his lawsuit against the school district for this very reason—blatant censorship allows officials to stifle any speech they don’t like and that includes the good with the bad and the ugly.
Today We Won an Injunction Against the Texas State Law Criminalizing Citizen Speech On the Speaker of the House Race!
“For the first time in two generations, Texans have the freedom to speak out on who they want as Speaker of the House—one of the most powerful political positions in our State.”—Hiram Sasser, Director of Litigation
“This law was the worst attack on free speech we have seen in the country. We are thrilled to have a victory for every Texas citizen.”—Kelly Shackelford
Thank you to those of you who prayed for this case!
At our first hearing today in the important free speech lawsuit against the Texas Ethics Commission (see below for more details), Judge Yeakel agreed that this case needs to be expedited – and set the next hearing for Tuesday (2/26). This was a great first step in one of the most pivotal cases affecting every citizen’s right to free political speech.
Watch the press conference we held at the Texas Ethics Commission last week:
Things are heating up in this fight for basic free speech rights! Tomorrow morning, the U.S. district court in Austin is holding the case’s first hearing in front of Judge Lee Yeakel. Stay tuned!
On Wednesday, Free Market and Kelly Shackelford filed a lawsuit against the Texas Ethics Commission as the enforcing agency of an unconstitutional law that practically bars everyday Texans from having a say in the Speaker of the House race. Kelly, Hiram Sasser of Free Market Foundation, Lisa Graybill are here holding a press conference at the Texas Capitol with their attorney, Jim Ho of Gibson, Dunn & Cutcher.
READ MORE about the prohibitive law and Free Market’s lawsuit
READ the legal complaint and READ the motion for preliminary injunction
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.
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Free Market Foundation, which was founded in 1972, is a 501(c)(3) non profit organization dedicated to protecting freedoms and strengthening families in Texas and nationwide. We stand for First Amendment freedoms, less government, and solid family values
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