Appeal is planned on gag rule
The state ethics panel bars disclosure of some information by those who complain.
HARRISBURG - The state plans to appeal a federal judge's order blocking enforcement of a state Ethics Commission gag rule on people who file complaints, lawyers said in papers filed yesterday.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner granted a preliminary injunction last month sought by citizen activist Gene Stilp, pending further action. Conner said the provision in the state ethics law that bars disclosure of information about pending complaints probably violates the constitutional right to free speech.
The state Attorney General's Office filed notice of an appeal to the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. Commission officials asked that Conner's ruling be appealed, said Kevin Harley, a spokesman for Attorney General Tom Corbett.
"They feel that an appeals court should make a determination on whether he ruled correctly," Harley said.
Stilp, a political activist, called the planned appeal an "idiotic waste of the taxpayers' money."
On Wednesday, Stilp posted the $250 bond that Conner required as a condition of issuing the injunction.
Commission officials contend that the ban on disclosure is needed to protect the integrity of investigations and the reputations of innocent officials. The judge said the commission failed to prove that a blanket ban on disclosure was the least restrictive means of achieving those goals.
Stilp paid $500 to settle a complaint against him by the Ethics Commission for telling reporters in 2007 that he was about to ask the panel to investigate taxpayer-financed polling by House Democrats. He filed his lawsuit challenging the law in March.
