Monday, December 14 is the first day of trial in Austin Councilmember Don Zimmerman's free speech challenge to Austin's severe limits on political contributions. The trial will be heard by Judge Lee Yeakel of the United States District Court in Austin, and is expected to last two days.
District 6 representative Don Zimmerman filed the First Amendment lawsuit in July challenging City of Austin campaign finance rules that ban political speech and prohibit fundraising until six months before Election Day.
Zimmerman is running for re-election in November 2016. The lawsuit seeks to invalidate four provisions of the City Charter limiting political association:
- Article III, section 8(F)(2), the “Blackout Period,” categorically bans fundraising by City candidates until the last six months before Election Day. This amounts to a fundraising ban for 42 months of every four-year cycle. This is even more severe than Houston’s similar blackout period, struck down earlier this year in Gordon v. City of Houston.
- Article III, section 8(A)(3) imposes an aggregate limit on contributions City candidates may receive from certain types of contributors based on where they live and voter registration status. This aggregate limit imposes severe compliance burdens on campaigns, especially smaller campaigns, and has nothing to do with any threat of corruption.
- Article III, section 8(F)(3), the “Campaign Dissolution Requirement,” requires candidates to completely dissolve their campaign accounts within 90 days after an election by distributing remaining funds to government-preferred recipients, one of which is the government itself (the Austin Fair Campaign Fund). However, the Charter provides an exception for incumbents to keep up to $20,000 in an “officeholder” account, which can be used for indirect campaign expenditures like newsletters and even contributions to other campaigns.
Zimmerman also challenges the $350 base contribution limit because it is too low and is not tailored to address corruption.
The case is Zimmerman v. City of Austin, No. 15-CV-628-LY.
Zimmerman’s complaint is available here; the legal memorandum is here.
Jerad Najvar practices political and appellate law and is founder of the Najvar Law Firm in Houston. He served as co-counsel to plaintiff Shaun McCutcheon in McCutcheon v. FEC, a successful challenge to federal aggregate contribution limits decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
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