AUSTIN — An Austin appeals court has revived a legal challenge to strip the Texas Ethics Commission of its regulatory power over campaigns and elections.

The Austin-American Statesman on Friday reported the Third Court of Appeals reinstated a lawsuit that claims the Ethics Commission lacks authority under the Texas Constitution to enforce campaign finance and electioneering rules. The suit, brought by the conservative activist group Empower Texans and its president, Michael Quinn Sullivan, was originally thrown out in November 2016 because the trial judge said his court lacked jurisdiction.

But the appeals court revived the case on Friday and sent it back to the trial court for further review. If that court sides with Empower Texans, it could mean the main agency that oversees campaign finance and ethics regulations in Texas could lose its power to do so.

The Texas Ethics Commission was created in 1991 through an amendment to the state Constitution that gave the body the authority to set salaries and per diem rates for elected officials. The Legislature then gave it further authority to enforce several state laws related to political contributions and expenditures, political advertising, lobbyist activities and elected officials' standards of conduct and conflicts of interest. Its eight commissioners are chosen by the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the Texas House.

The commission can levy fines against officials who break ethics rules. Elected leaders can also ask the commission to issue opinions on various state laws and regulations. The court said "its purpose is to regulate elections and prohibit undue influence while protecting the public's constitutional right to apply to the government for the redress of grievances."

Empower Texans, an influential group that funnels hundreds of thousands of dollars into Texas elections every cycle, has long been at odds with the commission. This lawsuit dates back to 2015, when the commission attempted to subpoena the group to get more information about a pair of ethics complaints it had received.

Sullivan fired back, questioning whether the commission itself violated the Texas Constitution's separation-of-powers provision by being a legislative agency that exercises executive powers. Ethics regulators then dropped their investigation into Empower Texans, and said the lawsuit should be dismissed since there was no longer any immediate threat against the group.

But in its decision to grant Empower Texans' appeal to revive the case, the Austin court said Friday that the commission "has never indicated that it would not act similarly in the event a new complaint was filed against appellants and asserts that it has the authority to do so."

The appeals court did not, however, rule on the merits of the lawsuit. That decision remains with the trial court at this time.

Empower Texans General Counsel Tony McDonald shared the court's ruling Friday, tweeting, "A foretaste of the feast to come."

A request for comment from the Ethics Commission was not immediately returned.