Perry Campaign Press Release - Wall Street Journal Editorial: One Down for Rick Perry

One Down for Perry

Wall Street Journal

A Texas appeals court throws out a trumped up felony charge

Editorial

July 24, 2015

on.wsj.com/1OwnJPG

One of the nastier political prosecutions in memory took a hit on Friday when a Texas appeals court dismissed one of the two felony counts against former Governor Rick Perry. The court should have thrown out the second count too, but that isn't likely to survive jury scrutiny.

A special prosecutor in notorious Travis County essentially charged Mr. Perry for exercising his constitutional right to oppose and veto an act of the legislature. Mr. Perry threatened to veto a funding bill for the Travis County District Attorney's Public Integrity Unit unless D.A. Rosemary Lehmberg resigned. She had been arrested and pleaded guilty to drunk driving, but she refused to resign and Mr. Perry followed through with the veto. The charges boil down to criminalizing routine political debate and controversies.

The appeals court ruled that the charge of "coercion of a public official" violated Mr. Perry's right to free speech. That's for sure. The second count of abuse of official capacity will now go to trial, but that could be reduced to a misdemeanor if a judge doesn't throw it out. Travis County prosecutors have a history of political prosecutions, and Republican primary voters should discount the one against Mr. Perry as they consider his presidential candidacy.