Opinion ID: 420937
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: T.C.A., Penal Code tit. 7, Sec. 30.05.

Text: 6 Although Bill Johnson's Restaurants appears to be the most definitive statement on this issue, other cases have impliedly, if not expressly, held that the first amendment right to petition is broad enough to protect an individual's right to file a suit with reasonable basis in a state or federal tribunal. See Gregory v. City of Chicago, 394 U.S. 111, 89 S.Ct. 946, 948, 22 L.Ed.2d 134 (1969) (Shortly after the original Constitution was adopted, again undoubtedly in an attempt to 'secure the Blessings of Liberty,' the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution, in which the first amendment, later made applicable to the states by the fourteenth amendment, provides that 'Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievance.' ); California Motor Transport Co. v. Trucking Unlimited, 404 U.S. 508, 92 S.Ct. 609, 30 L.Ed.2d 642 (1979) (We conclude that it would be destructive of rights of association and of petition to hold that groups with common interest may not, without violating the antitrust laws, use the channels and procedures of state and federal agencies and courts to advocate their cases ....) (emphasis added); and Bigelow v. Virginia, 421 U.S. 809, 95 S.Ct. 2222, 2227, 44 L.Ed.2d 600 (1975) (The first amendment, of course, is applicable to the states through the fourteenth amendment.) 7 Of course, whether the IRS agents conduct was privileged or immunized as a matter of federal law is an issue to be determined in the criminal trespass proceeding against the IRS agents. However, the fact that the agents may have a valid defense does not vitiate Hylton's right to petition for a redress of grievances in a nonfraudulent complaint