August 18, 2014 6:49 PM

Judge denies MQ Sullivan request for temporary injunction against Ethics Commission

Judge says it wasn’t a close call “at all” and he was “mystified” by Sullivan’s legal strategy, but the judge hinted he’s interested in the question of whether the commission should have voted in public on MQS lobby complaint

Following an afternoon of spirited arguments, a Travis County judge on Monday denied a request from attorneys for Midland oilman Tim Dunn’s spokesman Michael Quinn Sullivan for a temporary injunction against the Texas Ethics Commission.

Sullivan’s attorneys argued that the commission’s ruling that he’s a professional lobbyist and has failed to register may not be valid because commissioners may have acted in violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act. Attorneys for the commission answered that on Monday – and the judge agreed with them – by saying that Texas law exempts the TEC’s process for resolving sworn complaints from the Open Meetings Act. The commission’s attorney Eric Nichols said the agency’s “straightforward” position is “if it's exempt, it's exempt.”

Quorum Report readers who have followed this case may be aware that the natural next step after a commission ruling against him would seem to be for Sullivan’s attorneys to file what’s called a “de novo” appeal in state district court. That appeal would essentially restart the entire process of figuring out whether Sullivan should have been registered to lobby in 2010 and 2011, the timeframe covered by the sworn complaints. Judge Scott Jenkins went so far as to say he was “mystified” that Sullivan’s attorneys were not doing exactly that.

By Scott Braddock