Former legislator challenges lobby law

CINCINNATI (AP) — A former Ohio legislator who wants to work as an unpaid lobbyist for an anti-tax group he helped create has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the state law that would prohibit him from taking the job for a year.

Tom Brinkman Jr., a House member from 2001 to 2008, brought the case, along with COAST and the group’s treasurer Mark Miller, saying the state law that bars lawmakers from lobbying for a year after leaving office is too broad.

The suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court, contends that the law’s “overly broad and burdensome provisions” are unconstitutional restrictions on free speech and the right to petition the government.

The suit argues that the law is discriminatory because it allows former legislators to work as paid lobbyists on behalf of a state agency or political subdivision without a waiting period.

Brinkman, a Republican and fiscal conservative, helped found COAST, or the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending & Taxes, in 1999.

The suit describes COAST as an unincorporated association organized as a political action committee, and names Brinkman as a chief spokesman. Defendants include the Joint Legislative Ethics Committee, its members, and prosecutors in Hamilton and Franklin counties.