Appeals Court Backs Ethics Commission Over Activist
In the latest twist of a long-running dispute between the state's ethics watchdog and conservative activist Michael Quinn Sullivan, a state appeals court has overturned a lower court's ruling and sent the case back to Travis County.
Sullivan and the Texas Ethics Commission have been sparring for years over whether Sullivan's past political activity makes him a lobbyist under state law. Following a 2012 complaint filed by Republican state Reps. Jim Keffer of Eastland and Vicki Truitt of Keller, the commission ruled last year that Sullivan acted as an unregistered lobbyist in 2010 and 2011 and fined him $10,000.
Sullivan, who has long claimed that his actions communicating with lawmakers as head of Empower Texans do not qualify as lobbying, filed for a judicial review of the commission's action in Denton County, where Sullivan claimed to reside. The appeal favored Sullivan, prompting the Ethics Commission to appeal.
The Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth focused its ruling Thursday on the Ethics Commission's argument that Sullivan was a Travis County resident and that the transfer of the case to conservative Denton County was based on the false claim that he had moved there. The commission offered evidence from a hired investigator, including Sullivan's repeated claiming of a Travis County property as his primary residence for a homestead exemption.
Read more: http://www.texastribune.org/2015/11/05/appeals-court-sides-ethics-commission-over-activis/
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