DENVER -- A second scholarship fund said Thursday it will file a lawsuit to clarify whether the state's new ethics rules forbid the families of state employees from accepting some types of scholarships.

The Daniels Fund awards up to 250 scholarships a year. Officials say they need to have the rules clarified before they decide who receives this year's aid.

On Monday, the Boettcher Foundation filed a lawsuit seeking clarification on the ethics rules imposed by Amendment 41. The foundation awards near-full-ride scholarships to Colorado students to attend college in Colorado.

Amendment 41 is a voter-approved constitutional amendment designed to keep lobbyists and others from influencing lawmakers and state employees with gifts and free meals.

Scholarship funds and state officials say the law may inadvertently bar some kinds of financial aid to the children and grandchildren of state employees.

Lawmakers are also considering legislation to clarify the amendment.

Another group filed suit in Denver District court, asking the court grant an injunction against the amendment's implementation until constitutional questions can be answered. The group challenged the amendment's constitutionality in regards to free speech.

"In a society where communication is the essence of self-government and participation in the political process is a fundamental right, Amendment 41’s restrictions on speech and association must be narrowly tailored to serve a compelling governmental interest in order for the amendment to be constitutional," said Jean Dubofsky, a former Colorado Supreme Court justice who will be representing the plaintiffs. "This amendment is not, and we believe that courts will agree."

One of the plaintiffs is Ginny Buscek, who was forced to resign her volunteer position as a Firestone planning commissioner because she feared that being a government official would bar her two college-age daughters from receiving their academic scholarships.

"I followed the law and resigned my position with the Firestone planning commission because I did not want it to negatively affect my children and their college education," she said. "I simply couldn’t put my children in that position just so I could volunteer for my town. It was a truly sad choice I was forced to make."

Another plaintiff is Doug Abraham, a police officer for the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. After one of his fellow officers suffered an unexpected death in his family, the idea to raise money to help the officer pay for funeral expenses seemed like the right thing to do. However, under Amendment 41's restrictions, they could not give as much as they wanted.

Under the law, all police officers working for CU are state employees and no state employee can receive a gift of more than $50. So, no officer wishing to contribute to the emergency funeral fund could give more than $50, regardless of whether or not they wished to. In the end, the officers gave the amount they were legally allowed.