Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) is a fierce advocate in the courtroom, and one of its most important tools is the TFB Legal Defense Fund.
The Fund, authorized by TFB voting delegates in 1998, dedicates financial resources to implement state and national Farm Bureau agricultural and rural policy issues through the state and federal court systems. It is member funded.
Stephanie McMullen, TFB assistant general counsel, manages the fund. She said TFB makes sure that overall uses of the Fund are widely representative of geographical regions and commodity interests in the state. One recent legal success made possible by the Fund’s support involved water.
TFB challenged a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality policy giving cities and power generators preferential treatment in certain water skirmishes. The Texas Supreme Court in February 2016 decided to leave in place an April 2015 decision from the 13th Court of Appeals in Corpus Christi. The decision protected property rights that would have otherwise been taken from property owners.
“That was an issue that we worked all the way through, from the District Court to the Texas Supreme Court,” McMullen said. “We’ve been very active in areas of property rights, water, Endangered Species Act and regulatory issues. The Fund allows us to hire the best attorneys and subject matter experts to help us be successful in the courtroom.”
TFB Government Affairs Director Regan Beck said the organization most often files amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs when it takes aim at legal issues with statewide precedence, in coordination with the TFB Public Policy team. The TFB Legal Defense Fund provides resources for the briefs, as well as for other litigation and non-litigation activities.
“The Fund is not designed for neighbor disputes. Rather, it is intended for those issues and cases that have statewide significance and are directly related to Farm Bureau policy,” Beck said. “It is unique for a statewide organization to have a dedicated fund for legal activities. We are very fortunate in that way.”
The creation of the TFB Legal Defense Fund was initially recommended by the TFB Project 2000 Committee.