Charge Tossed on Texas Business Lobby's Election Ads

Dallas Morning News / Associated Press ^ | June 30, 2006 | JIM VERTUNO

[anymouse]

Group didn't violate state campaign funding law, judge decides

AUSTIN – A state district judge threw out a felony indictment against the Texas Association of Business on Thursday, ruling that the group's ads in the 2002 legislative elections did not expressly advocate the defeat or election of candidates.

The ruling is probably a significant blow to Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle's prosecution of the state's largest and most powerful business lobby.

(snip)

Judge Lynch's order said prosecutors' theory of illegal campaign expenses, while innovative, cannot be found in the state election code. Even if it were, it would be unconstitutionally broad and vague, he said.

Judge Lynch wrote that the ads were "troublesome because they engage in what most non-technical, common-sense people (i.e. non-lawyers) would think of as clear support for specific candidates."

But he said he is also bound to protect free speech and that he must limit the application of the law to express advocacy, which he said the ads do not do.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Ronnie Earle is still playing politics from the bench. This time the bench did not cooperate. He will loose the De Lay case too but he doesn't care. He cost his enemies a lot of money, endeared himself to his leftist base in Austin, and put fear in the hearts of the weak. Crooked politics at its best.