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State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has advised ethics officials to drop an investigation of whether a protest rally and other actions by the Diocese of Bridgeport constitutes lobbying, saying that the lobbying law is too broad and could violate freedom of religion in this instance.
Blumenthal said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon that it’s possible the church’s activities fall under the lobby registration law — the diocese, for example, might have spent over the threshold of $2,000 booking buses to take parishioners to a rally at the Capitol in March to protest a bill that would have dramatically changed the way internal church affairs are governed. The bill was withdrawn. He also noted that in the past, church officials have registered as lobbyists in other circumstances.
“The point is not whether the law applies,” said Blumenthal, whose office was asked to defend the Office of State Ethics against a federal lawsuit by the diocese that seeks to block the investigation. “It’s whether the enforcement and investigative activities would be stopped by the court, rightly, because they violated church-state separation and First Amendment rights.”
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Blumenthal said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon that it’s possible the church’s activities fall under the lobby registration law — the diocese, for example, might have spent over the threshold of $2,000 booking buses to take parishioners to a rally at the Capitol in March to protest a bill that would have dramatically changed the way internal church affairs are governed. The bill was withdrawn. He also noted that in the past, church officials have registered as lobbyists in other circumstances.
“The point is not whether the law applies,” said Blumenthal, whose office was asked to defend the Office of State Ethics against a federal lawsuit by the diocese that seeks to block the investigation. “It’s whether the enforcement and investigative activities would be stopped by the court, rightly, because they violated church-state separation and First Amendment rights.”
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