The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport is fighting back against the Office of State Ethics by seeking an injunction against their recent attempt to make them register as a lobbyist. The Church argues that they are simply expressing their constitutional right to free speech by mobilizing their constituency via the pulpit and their website to rally at the capitol and email legislators in protest over proposed legislation. T.J. Jones, the Enforcement Officer from the agency who initiated the evaluation, wants to establish whether or not the church violated state statute requiring registration, and subsequent reporting, when the Church paid for buses to take its parishioners to the capitol for the rally.
The state’s regulation of speech in the lobbying statute goes back years and while many have sought to argue that tax status or the type of speech makes them exempt from the rules, the fact is that the ethics regulations require registration if you spend over $2000 or more. Lobbying is specifically defined as “communicating directly or soliciting others to communicate with any official or his staff in the legislative or executive branch of government or in a quasi-public agency, for the purpose of influencing any legislative or administrative action.” The Church was clearly engaged in trying to influence a legislative outcome so the question is whether or not they spent $2000 doing it.
Lots of companies and organizations have experienced incredulity when learning about the ethics rules in Connecticut. The rules are, at best, complicated and at worst convoluted. But everyone has to play by the same rules. Groups can petition the legislature to change them but in this environment, that is not likely to happen. So long as everyone is held to the same standard, regardless of issue or tax status, organizations will at least know where they stand.
