Legislative Immunity

It's official:  what differentiates us from chimpanzees is not
our intelligence, our ability to deal with the abstract, or our
ability to tell jokes. According to <a href="http://www.nonhumanrightsproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Appella…; target="”_blank”">the
decision of a five-member New York state appellate panel yesterday</a>,

<h4>I did stop and and try to invoke legislative immunity, but the camera would have none of it.</h4><br>

Below is the text of a talk I gave at the Council on Governmental
Ethics Laws conference this week. Due to time limitations, I was not
able to share this entire text, so even those who heard the talk may
want to read this and see what they missed. For those who have been following my posts on legislative immunity, this talk not only brings together a lot of information, but also adds a section on how much of a misnomer "absolute" legislative immunity is.<br>
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<b>Update: May 27, 2011</b> (see below)<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/open-meetings-laws-and-legislative-im…; target="”_blank”">Last
week, I wrote</a> about a temporary restraining order (TRO) placed on
the publication of a Wisconsin bill that was allegedly passed in
violation of the state's open meetings law. However, the court placing

According to <a href="http://www.wkow.com/Global/story.asp?S=14276368&quot; target="”_blank”">articles
on the WKOW TV (Madison, WI)  website</a>, this morning a
Wisconsin judge placed a restraining order to stop a controversial
budget repair bill from becoming law. The principal cause of action was
a violation of the state's open meetings law. However, the names of
four legislative leaders were taken off the suit due to their

Here's a curiosity relating to local official legislative immunity.
According to <a href="http://statehousenewsonline.com/2011/02/25/legislators-sponsor-unusual-…; target="”_blank”">an
article in statehousenewsonline.com on Friday</a>, Virginia state

The defense of legislative immunity is not limited to city councilors and county
commissioners. It also can be used by non-legislative officials acting in a
legislative way. It may be used by planning and
zoning board members and officials, school board members, and a variety
of other officials involved in the creation of legislation or who act in a legislative manner.<br>
<br>
Here's an interesting case of a non-legislative official trying out a
defense of legislative immunity and, fortunately, failing. The official

I listened yesterday to the testimony of Kevin Powers, a member of the Nevada
Legislative Counsel's office, to the House Committee considering the

The Nevada legislature is really going out of its way to make sure that
its members, and no one else in the state, is protected by legislative
immunity with respect to the state ethics commission. For a body that
was afraid, without a court's blessing, to exclude its members from the
state ethics commission's jurisdiction (to the extent a member is
involved in legislative activity), it does not seem afraid, even before
the appellate opinion in its legislative immunity case has been

Yesterday, the Nevada legislative immunity case was argued before the
state Supreme Court. The <a href="http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/apr/21/justices-queries-please-sen…; target="”_blank”">Las
Vegas Sun reporter</a> felt that the judges' questions favored the state legislator
rather than the ethics commission. I'll let people know when the oral