U.S. Sen Ted Cruz issued a statement earlier today decrying legislative action in Texas similar to rules being pushed nationally by the Obama Administration.
The comments came in advance of the Texas House State Affairs Committee’s invitation-only hearing supporting House Speaker Joe Straus’ efforts to adopt an unconstitutional rule forcing non-profit organizations to disclose the names of their donors in an attempt to chill the freedoms of political speech and association. The committee is chaired by Straus crony Byron Cook of Corsicana.
Today the Texas Legislature is holding a hearing on requiring outside groups to disclose their donors to engage in political speech. That would be a disastrous policy that would unconstitutionally chill free speech.
President Obama and U.S. Senate Democrats have been trying to enact this wrongheaded law for years at the federal level. And the IRS just received 150,000 comments overwhelmingly against its proposed rules to force groups to disclose their donors.
The Texas Legislature should not enact these pernicious laws at the state level.
