HOUSTON (AP) _ A long-running challenge to the Texas Open Meetings Act is going before a federal appeals court.
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is set to hear oral arguments Thursday in Houston in a lawsuit seeking to declare part of the act unconstitutional.
The 2009 suit, filed by 15 city leaders from around Texas, contends the act violates elected officials’ free speech rights by preventing them from speaking in public or private on issues facing their constituents.
The office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott says the law prevents government by secret.
The suit is before the appeals court after a West Texas federal judge last year ruled the law doesn’t muzzle the First Amendment right to free speech.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)