AUSTIN, Texas — Attorneys for former Gov. Rick Perry have asked a Texas appeals court to dismiss felony charges against the possible 2016 presidential candidate on free-speech grounds.
Separate from a response filed in district court this week, Perry’s legal team submitted more than 100 pages of briefs and proposed orders to the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals, which were processed Thursday. Perry’s attorneys said he was acting within his power as the state’s chief executive when he issued a 2013 veto pivotal to the case, and that anything he said on the subject is constitutionally protected, since “freedom of speech protects the governor and the rest of the public from the chilling effect of vague and overbroad laws.”
Perry was indicted in August on charges of abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant stemming from a veto of state funding for a public corruption division within the office of Democratic Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg. That came after Lehmberg, whose county includes Austin, rebuffed the governor’s calls to resign after her conviction and jail sentence for drunken driving.
“At stake is not just the freedom of one man,” Perry’s brief states. “The veto power will either be preserved and continue its vital role as a check on the other branches of government in this state, or its use will only be contemplated against the backdrop of possible criminal prosecution.”