The rights to free speech and association won't protect defendants who allegedly conspired to steal millions or billions from the Mexican state of Veracruz, the Fourteenth Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.

The ruling marks an example of when an appellate court put the brakes on the Texas Citizen Participation Act. That former law, in place before lawmakers narrowed it this year, was so broadly written that it's applied to multiple non-free speech cases, from lawyer discipline to labor and employment matters.

The opinion came in Bandin v. Veracruz by Justice Frances Bourliot, joined by Justices Kevin Jewell and Jerry Zimmerer. It noted that Veracruz alleged in the lawsuit that its former governor, Javier Duarte, conspired with appellants Jose Bandin and Monica Babayan to engage in money laundering and fraudulent transfers of public funds into Texas shell companies that invested in Houston-area real estate.