'Things are going to get weird': Alex Stein's free-speech case against Dallas Democrats goes to trial

BlazeTV host Alex Stein filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in 2022 against Dallas County Commissioner John Price (D), Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins (D), and a trio of county marshals after he was forcibly removed from a meeting of the Dallas County Commissioners Court.

Price had Stein kicked out for seeking clarification about troubling allegations regarding his Democratic compatriot, Jenkins, who was running for re-election at the time.

Stein accused the Democratic duo and the county by extension of violating his constitutional right to free speech as well as the court’s own rules and the Texas Open Meetings Act.

The case is headed to trial next week, which could have ramifications for free-speech rights and spell trouble for the defendants, one of whom is up for re-election next year.

"This case is not about me as an individual but about all of our rights to publicly criticize our politicians," Stein told Blaze News.

While Stein has a talent for getting under politicians' skin at all levels of government, his apparent bread and butter is confronting officials at local government meetings.

There have been a number of instances where the comedian has donned provocative costumes and engaged in a style of commentary that has discomfited officials and onlookers alike.

For instance, Stein approached the microphone at a January 2022 Dallas City Council meeting dressed in surgical scrubs and mockingly rapped about giving the novel COVID-19 vaccine to virtually everyone and everything, singing, "Vaccinate your mom, vaccinate your dad, vaccinate the happy, vaccinate the sad. Vaccinate your babies, vaccinate them, even if they got rabies. Vaccinate my life, vaccinate my wife."

Later that year, Stein addressed Plano City Council wearing a women's swimsuit and pink swim cap, comically highlighting the absurdity of gender ideologues' arguments in favor of men competing in women's sports.

'I'm just asking.'

Stein took a far more subdued approach when addressing the Dallas County Commissioners Court on May 17, 2022.

Dressed in a suit and tie, Stein — one of three members of the public permitted to speak at the livestreamed meeting —swapped out his customary theatrics for a straight read of an excerpt from a Sept. 23, 2014, article in D magazine about Clay Jenkins, which stated:

In college at Baylor, Jenkins continued to distinguish himself dubiously. He was arrested twice, once for reckless driving after he led Baylor security and Waco police on a car chase he’d planned and a second time for criminal trespassing in a women’s dorm during a panty raid. Strangely enough, he was never arrested for his role as the famous Baylor Pie Man, a hit man for a student-organized ring that offered to throw pies in people’s faces — professors, ex-boyfriends — for a fee.

Neither Price nor Jenkins, whose term ends in December 2026, responded to Blaze News' request for comment.

'You're finished! You’re finished!'

Before Stein could finish reading the excerpt, Price — who was acquitted on seven of 11 counts of criminal wrongdoing in a corruption trial in 2017 — angrily rapped his gavel and stated, "You're not allowed to admonish members of this court."

Price's interruption took place less than a minute into Stein's time. The previous speakers were allotted three uninterrupted minutes each.

"Yeah. I'm asking, I'm just asking," said Stein. "I would like to get some clarification."

When the BlazeTV host attempted to continue reading from the article, Price directed Dallas County marshals to drag Stein out of the court, noting, "You're not allowed to attack members of this court."

Before marshals Robert De Los Santos, Zack Masri, and Charles Johnson descended on him, Stein stressed that he was asking "a simple question." Prompted to articulate his query in full, the comedian said, "What was the panty raid about?"

"You're finished! You're finished!" responded Price, who suggested once again that Stein was attacking a member of the court. "Marshal, move him out. You're finished. You're finished."

The following month, Stein filed suit.

'The First Amendment was meant for exactly this.'

Stein's original complaint included a statement from then-Dallas County Commissioner Justin Koch claiming that Price was in the wrong when ejecting the comedian from the courtroom, reported the Dallas Express.

"Commissioner Price, I believe unlawfully, had Alex Stein removed. Alex Stein started to read about Judge Jenkins in an article about some of his past bad behavior," stated Koch, now chief judge of the Texas Fifth District Court of Appeals. "The statute that someone can be removed under is basically someone who is profane, slanderous, or boisterous."

Koch suggested further that if the D magazine article had indeed been defamatory, Jenkins would have sued the publication sometime in the previous eight years, which he had not bothered to do.

Stein's attorney Jonathan Gross noted around the time of the lawsuit's filing, "Politicians have to remember that they serve the public, not the other way around."

"Criticizing the government is the highest form of protected speech," continued Gross. "It's the right of Stein and every American."

Stein originally claimed that his forceful ejection from the meeting violated his First, Fifth, and 14th Amendment rights. However, in 2023, senior U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater, the judge presiding over Stein's case, granted the defendants' motions to dismiss Stein's claim that they violated his 14th Amendment right to equal protection of the laws.

When asked about the upcoming trial and the current state of play, Stein expressed hope that "this will be a smooth, open-and-shut trial," but told Blaze News that "things are going to get weird since [he and the defense] both have submitted a lot of my craziest speeches at government meetings."

"I think the defendants hope that the jury is made up of people who don't like me, and they will try and paint me as a bad person only doing this for clicks," said Stein. "They will probably argue that I was being disruptive or slanderous and not trying to participate in good faith, which is the farthest thing from the truth."

"The First Amendment was meant for exactly this — to protect our right to criticize our politicians," said Stein. "Limiting the First Amendment is a violation of the Constitution, and that's why this federal lawsuit is so important."

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