The Brady Exoneration

Here’s the report of the House Ethics Committee on the complaint against Rep. Gerald Brady:

Committee Vote: Complaint fails to allege facts which constitute a violation of the Rules of Legislative Conduct and no further action will be taken by the House Ethics Committee; 5-0

Committee Findings:
The Ethics Committee of the House of Representatives of the 151st General Assembly met on September 10, 2021 to consider a complaint lodged against Representative Gerald Brady based on his use of a racial slur in an e-mail in June 2021, as widely reported in local media. The Committee has unanimously determined that while the members [sic] choice of words was reprehensible, and without condoning his expression, this incident does not rise to the level of a violation of the Rules of Legislative Conduct and no further action will be taken by this Committee.

While it is manifestly the business of this Committee to ensure the decorum of House proceedings and to punish unlawful and unethical conduct that reflects upon the integrity of the House, there is no precedent for policing the lawful expression of opinions or a member’s choice of words in what he believed to be correspondence with a private citizen. Determining which ideas and manners of expression are beyond the pale is first and foremost the province of voters. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects freedom of speech and it would run contrary to those principles to punish “the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.”

In determining that no further action will be taken, the Committee notes that the member has issued an apology, already completed a sensitivity training course, and indicated his intention not to stand for election when his current term is complete.