Former Missouri lawmaker, Rocky Miller, recently filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court against the Missouri Ethics Commission.
Miller hopes to change a law prohibiting members of the Missouri House and Senate from lobbying their former peers after they leave office.
The Missouri Ethics Commission declined to comment, however, Miller’s attorney Cole D. Bradbury told the St. Louis Record that the provision effectively barred Miller from speaking to state lawmakers as a private citizen.
“The lobbying ban censors speech by private citizens, including Mr. Miller, to their elected officials,” he said. “There is no amount of time for which that is constitutionally permissible.”
According to Bakersfield, the lawsuit is in response to voter inspired change in Missouri’s constitution that excluded lawmakers from instantly going into the lobbying ranks after they leave office.
“Miller has lost income and faces the prospect of additional lost income, civil penalties and criminal conviction and penalties, the cost and expense of defending himself, and public embarrassment if MEC takes official action to enforce the lobbying ban against him,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit states that Miller is a licensed professional engineer with more than 30 years of experience with Missouri LLC desiring to hire Miller “to lobby officials in Missouri’s executive and legislative branches.”