Ex Parte Ellis
| Decision Date | 22 August 2008 |
| Docket Number | No. 03-05-00586-CR.,No. 03-05-00593-CR.,No. 03-05-00595-CR.,No. 03-05-00594-CR.,No. 03-05-00602-CR.,No. 03-05-00603-CR.,No. 03-05-00601-CR.,No. 03-05-00591-CR.,No. 03-05-00592-CR.,No. 03-05-00597-CR.,No. 03-05-00600-CR.,No. 03-05-00596-CR.,No. 03-05-00589-CR.,No. 03-05-00598-CR.,No. 03-05-00585-CR.,No. 03-05-00599-CR.,No. 03-05-00590-CR.,03-05-00585-CR.,03-05-00586-CR.,03-05-00589-CR.,03-05-00590-CR.,03-05-00591-CR.,03-05-00592-CR.,03-05-00593-CR.,03-05-00594-CR.,03-05-00595-CR.,03-05-00596-CR.,03-05-00597-CR.,03-05-00598-CR.,03-05-00599-CR.,03-05-00600-CR.,03-05-00601-CR.,03-05-00602-CR.,03-05-00603-CR. |
| Citation | 279 S.W.3d 1 |
| Parties | Ex parte James W. ELLIS. Ex parte John Dominick Colyandro. |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Stevens, Law Offices of Mark Stevens, San Antonio, for appellants.
Ronald Earle, Dist. Atty., Holly Taylor, Asst. Dist. Atty., Austin, for appellee.
Before Chief Justice LAW, Justices PEMBERTON and WALDROP.
In these pretrial proceedings, James W. Ellis and John Dominick Colyandro seek the dismissal of indictments accusing them of accepting unlawful campaign contributions and money laundering. They argue that the election code provisions under which they have been indicted are unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, and that the money laundering statute in effect at the time of the alleged offense is unconstitutionally vague. The trial court denied relief and these appeals followed. We affirm the orders of the district court.
Ellis and Colyandro were first indicted in September 2004 on charges of unlawful acceptance of corporate political contributions (Colyandro only) and money laundering (Ellis and Colyandro). Collectively, the indictments accuse Ellis and Colyandro of participating in a scheme to channel unlawful corporate political contributions to candidates for the Texas House of Representatives in 2002 in violation of the Texas Election Code. Thirteen of the indictments pending against Colyandro allege that on various dates throughout 2002, Colyandro knowingly accepted political contributions from certain business corporations to a political committee called Texans for a Republican Majority PAC (TRMPAC) that Colyandro knew to have been made in violation of the election code. See Tex. Elec.Code Ann. § 253.003 (West 2003); see also id. § 253.094 (West 2003). The remaining indictments alleged that on or about September 13, 2002, Ellis and Colyandro knowingly conducted and facilitated a transaction involving the proceeds of activity that violated section 253.094 of the election code, and that the value of the funds was $100,000 or more. See Act of May 26, 1993, 73d Leg., R.S., ch. 761, § 2, 1993 Tex. Gen. Laws 2966, 2967 (amended 2005) (current version at Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 34.02 (West Supp.2008)) (money laundering);1 Tex. Elec.Code Ann. § 253.094 (prohibited contributions). The indictments state that six named corporations gave unlawful contributions totaling $155,000 to TRMPAC, that Ellis and Colyandro delivered these corporate contributions to the Republican National State Elections Committee in the form of a check for $190,000 drawn on a TRMPAC account and signed by Colyandro, and that the national committee then made contributions totaling $190,000 to a list of Texas house candidates suggested by Ellis. The $190,000 check to the Republican National State Elections Committee was expressly made part of and reproduced in the September 2004 money laundering indictments.
Ellis and Colyandro were reindicted in July 2005. The new indictments alleged that Ellis and Colyandro knowingly facilitated a transaction involving the proceeds of activity violating sections 253.003 and 253.094 of the election code, and that the value of the funds was $100,000 or more. See Tex. Elec.Code Ann. § 253.003 () and Act of May 26, 1993, 73d Leg., R.S., ch. 761, § 2, 1993 Tex. Gen. Laws 2966, 2967 (amended 2005) (current version at Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 34.02) (money laundering). The allegations in the new indictments are essentially the same as those contained in the first set of indictments with the exception that the new indictments do not allege that the transfer of $190,000 from TRMPAC to the national committee was made by check and do not incorporate the check as part of the indictments. The original indictments were not dismissed, and both sets of indictments are pending.
Ellis and Colyandro petitioned the district court for a writ of habeas corpus, seeking dismissal of the original prosecutions on the basis that election code section 253.094 is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. See Ex parte Weise, 55 S.W.3d 617, 620 (Tex.Crim.App.2001) (); Ex parte Mattox, 683 S.W.2d 93, 96 (Tex.App.-Austin 1984), aff'd, 685 S.W.2d 53 (Tex.Crim.App. 1985) (same). After they were reindicted, Ellis and Colyandro filed additional habeas corpus petitions, seeking dismissal of the new prosecutions on the basis that election code sections 253.003 and 253.094 are unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, and that the money laundering statute under which they were indicted is unconstitutionally vague. The district court denied relief.
Ellis and Colyandro seek dismissal of both sets of indictments arguing that sections 253.003 and 253.094 of the election code are unconstitutionally vague and overbroad on their face.2 They argue that these sections are vague and overbroad because the statutory definition of "campaign contribution" is "insufficiently tailored and precise to avoid criminalizing protected conduct or chilling the exercise of First Amendment rights." More specifically, Ellis and Colyandro point to the portion of the definition of "campaign contribution" providing that the contribution be "offered or given with the intent that it be used in connection with a campaign" as too imprecise to give constitutionally adequate notice of what conduct is prohibited as well as criminalizing conduct that comes within the protections of the First Amendment right to free speech.
It is a fundamental constitutional principle that an enactment is void for vagueness if its prohibitions are not clearly defined. Grayned v. City of Rockford, 408 U.S. 104, 108, 92 S.Ct. 2294, 33 L.Ed.2d 222 (1972). A criminal law must be sufficiently clear in at least three respects: (1) a person of ordinary intelligence must be given a reasonable opportunity to know what is prohibited; (2) the law must establish determinate guidelines for law enforcement; and (3) where First Amendment freedoms are implicated, the law must be sufficiently definite to avoid chilling protected expression. Id. at 108-09, 92 S.Ct. 2294; Long v. State, 931 S.W.2d 285, 287 (Tex.Crim.App.1996). When a vagueness challenge involves First Amendment considerations, a criminal law may be held facially invalid even though it may not be unconstitutional as applied to the defendant's conduct. Long, 931 S.W.2d at 288. Ellis and Colyandro argue that the election code provisions relating to corporate campaign contributions run afoul of all three requirements because of the indefiniteness inherent in the prohibition of contributions that are "given with the intent" that they be used "in connection with a campaign."
To place Ellis and Colyandro's complaints in context, some background is necessary as to how the rather complicated Texas Election Code structure attempts to regulate political contributions. Chapter 253 of the election code regulates political contributions and expenditures in Texas. It is an offense for a person to "knowingly make a political contribution in violation of this chapter" or to "knowingly accept a political contribution the person knows to have been made in violation of this chapter." Tex. Elec.Code Ann. § 253.003(a), (b). Ellis and Colyandro are accused of accepting unlawful corporate campaign contributions made in violation of election code sections 253.003 and 253.094.
Subchapter D of chapter 253 governs political contributions and expenditures by corporations and labor organizations. "A corporation or labor organization may not make a political contribution or political expenditure that is not authorized by this subchapter." Id. § 253.094(a). Subchapter D specifically authorizes a corporation to "make campaign contributions from its own property in connection with an election on a measure only to a political committee for supporting or opposing measures exclusively,"3 id. § 253.096 (West 2003), and "to finance the establishment or administration of a general-purpose committee" or "to finance the solicitation of political contributions to a general-purpose committee"4 from the corporation's stockholders, employees, or families, id. § 253.100(a), (b) (West Supp.2008). Other political contributions or political expenditures specifically authorized by subchapter D include: direct expenditures "in connection with an election on a measure," id. § 253.097 (West 2003), direct expenditures "for the purpose of communicating directly with [the corporation's] stockholders or members," id. § 253.098 (West 2003), and "expenditures to finance nonpartisan voter registration and get-out-the-vote campaigns aimed at its stockholders or members," id. § 253.099 (West 2003). Thus, with the exception of the enumerated types of contributions and expenditures expressly authorized, all other "campaign contributions" and "expenditures" by corporations are prohibited. Although the election code sets out distinctions between authorized and unauthorized (i.e., criminal) contributions, Ellis and Colyandro contend that the provisions are too vague for "a person of ordinary intelligence" to determine what conduct is authorized and what conduct is prohibited. Ellis and Colyandro also argue that the statutory definitions of unauthorized conduct are unconstitutionally overbroad because they necessarily...
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