Fla. Tea Party, Guetzloe Face Lawsuit

The Florida Tea Party was sued Tuesday by self-described Florida grass-roots volunteers and organizations who consider themselves the “tea-party movement,” claiming the officially registered Tea Party is threatening lawsuits against them as long as they use the “Tea Party” name. “By holding themselves out as ‘The’ Tea Party political party, they are furthering public deception,” claims the suit, filed against the Tea Party, chairman Fred O’Neal and his party associates, Doug Guetzloe and Nick Egoroff. “The defendants fully intend to ‘hijack’ the phrase ‘Tea Party’ for their political will and objectives.” The activists from South Florida, St. Augustine and Naples claim in the lawsuit they fear they will be sued because O’Neal, the party’s founder and chairman, “sent threatening letters (and) made explicit and implicit threats against” them. The lawsuit, filed today in U.S. District Court in Miami, claims they are “uncertain of their legal position and seek a declaratory judgment regarding whether they are entitled to use the phrase ‘Tea Party’ without fear of litigation.”...read more