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| TX Attorney General Ken Paxton |
The following is unusual and a bit unnerving.
From the Austin-American Statesman:
Joined Thursday by Republican officials from eight other states,
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton urged a federal appeals court to
reinstate a Mississippi law that had been struck down as discriminatory against gay and transgender people.
The Mississippi law, Paxton told the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
in a legal brief, was intended to protect citizens from being forced by
the government into taking actions that violate their religious
beliefs, particularly if they oppose same-sex marriage.
“Americans
have the right to peacefully live and work according to their deeply
held beliefs, in accordance with the religious freedoms enshrined in our
Constitution,” Paxton said.
Although civil rights and gay rights
advocates say the Mississippi law allowed for government-sanctioned
discrimination, socially conservative Republicans in Texas have vowed to
pass similar laws when the Legislature convenes in January — a strategy
that would be endangered if the appeals court ruled that the
Mississippi law was unconstitutional. Precedents set by the 5th Circuit
apply to Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
. . . The law, passed in March, would have allowed businesses to refuse to
serve gay people and let government employees decline to issue same-sex
marriage licenses as long as somebody else in the office was available
to perform the task. Those who speak out against gay or transgender
people also would have been protected from lawsuits and other reprisals.
Hours before it was to take effect July 1, however, U.S. District Judge
Carlton Reeves blocked enforcement of HB 1523, saying it violated the
Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law by allowing
for government-approved discrimination against gay, transgender and
unmarried people.
Apparently Paxton believes that lgbts should sacrifice our dignity and rights as American citizens because of other people's religious prejudices. The court was right to strike this law down and I don't envision them reinstating it.
