Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Ethics And Lobbying topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Ethics commission seeks small caption change to clarify lobbying prohibition applies only to elected officials
Summary
The Ethics Commission asked the committee to add the word “elected” to a statute caption to mirror Article 14, Section 2 of the North Dakota Constitution and reduce confusion about whether appointed officials fall under the constitution's two‑year lobbying prohibition.
Logan Carpenter, general counsel for the North Dakota Ethics Commission, asked the Government and Veterans Affairs Committee to approve a technical change to the caption of a Century Code section related to lobbying restrictions. The commission’s requested change is to add the single word “elected” to the caption that currently reads “public official,” clarifying that the constitutional prohibition—"An elected public official may not be a lobbyist while holding office or for two years after holding office"—applies only to elected public officials.
Carpenter told the committee that the caption itself is not the operative law but that the present wording has caused confusion among appointed officials and members of the public who have read the statute's caption and wondered whether the constitutional restriction applied to appointees. "The ethics commission is confident this change will minimize confusion in the future," Carpenter said.
Opponents and neutral witnesses noted the constitutional provision has raised First Amendment questions in other states and that federal litigation has challenged similar rules elsewhere. Jeff Simon, executive director of the Western Dakota Energy Association and former chair of the group that opposed the 2018 measure, reminded committee members that an Eighth Circuit opinion analyzed a Missouri provision and that litigation remains ongoing there. He said his group does not object to the caption change but cautioned the committee the state constitutional provision could face a federal constitutional challenge in time. The committee closed the hearing without taking a vote during the session.
