The misdeeds of the speech regulators at the Texas Ethics Commission are beginning to draw the attention of national media. J. Christian Adams is out today at PJ Media with a story exposing how bureaucrats at the TEC are working with speech regulators from a list of left-leaning states to attack Empower Texans and other conservative groups.

Emails show that John Moore, the Director of Enforcement at the TEC, reached out to a “community of attorneys” hosted by the state of Vermont for help in fighting Empower Texans. Moore’s complaint? Empower Texans was refusing to disclose its donors to the TEC.

The emails show that participants on the list included at least the following states:

California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New York City, New York, Texas, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Texans will recall that John Moore was the TEC staffer who advised the commission to ignore the US and Texas constitutional arguments put forward in Empower Texans’ case. Later, Paul Hobby, the chairman of the TEC, a democrat appointed to the commission by House Speaker Joe Straus, told Empower Texans attorneys that the commission wasn’t there “to call constitutional balls and strikes.”

Emails show nationwide collaboration between liberal states and Texas in defense of speech regulations. In his introductory email, Moore reveals that he was invited to participate in the group by Phylis Gardiner, the attorney for the Maine Ethics Commission, and Eve Jacobs-Carnahan, an assistant attorney general from Vermont who prosecuted the Republican Governor’s Association.

Tony McDonald

Tony McDonald serves as General Counsel to Texas Scorecard. A licensed and practicing attorney, Tony specializes in the areas of civil litigation, legislative lawyering, and non-profit regulatory compliance. Tony resides in Austin with his wife and daughter and attends St. Paul Lutheran Church.

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