Once again proving it’s determined to be the worst state in the nation, a Texas lawmaker has appealed to the attorney general to authorize the state to nullify marriage equality.
Jezebel reports that Republican State Rep. James White appealed to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last week, asking for his opinion on how to reconcile the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges US Supreme Court case that authorized marriage equality with still-existing state laws that define marriage as between one man and one woman. Specifically, White wonders if private citizens still must recognize same-sex marriages, even if the state must issue marriage licenses to them.
White’s argument essentially states that even though federal laws supersede state laws–thus making conflicting state laws unenforceable by government officials–private citizens do not need to adhere to federal laws. Should AG Paxton agree with White’s argument, that would open the door to private businesses being able to refuse same-sex couples business or recognize other rights afforded to married couples under the law.
Related: Texas just quietly launched a campaign to delete the existence of LGBTQ people
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“The fact that a federal district court has enjoined state officials from enforcing the Texas marriage laws in no way affects the existence or validity of those laws with regard to private parties, who are not even bound by the Fourteenth Amendment — let alone the Supreme Court’s purported interpretations of it,” White wrote in his letter to Paxton.
In essence, White uses the same argument as lawyer Jonathan Mitchell, the architect of Texas’ law that deputizes and rewards citizens for hunting down women seeing abortions, and anyone aiding them. That law is already headed to the US Supreme Court to test its constitutionality. Mitchell has also proven himself a chief enemy of LGBTQ rights, having previously argued that both Obergefell and Lawrence v. Texas, which invalidated anti-gay sodomy laws in 2003, were both incorrectly decided by the high court.
AG Paxton has yet to issue an opinion on White’s argument.
The news of White’s renewed attack on marriage equality comes on the heels of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signing into a law a ban on transgender athletes competing in school sports. It also follows passage of the aforementioned anti-abortion bill, which essentially turns private citizens into bounty hunters of women seeking abortions, and anyone who might–wittingly or not–aid them.
mastik8
What concerns me is the total lack of pushback by those Blue Staters that flooded into Red State Texas and allegedly turned it Purple.
Chrisk
Texas is the king of redistricting so it might be purple but until they deal with the Republican fixes you’ll still end up with a over whelming Republican majority.
Mister P
There are a lot of nice normal people in Texas. Unfortunately, the whackos get a lot of attention and bills passed.
Mr. Stadnick
Sadly the non-whackos aren’t speaking up and everyday Texas becomes more and more the home of the American “Taliban”.
GrizzleyMichael
Would someone remove the wheels from Abbott’s wheelchair and leave him
Max
do the same to Cawthorne’s…
LMG
Would someone please hook Abbott up to an “electric wheel chair”. Att: All women and people in the LGBTQ community who live in Texass. VOTE Abbot OUT in the next election!! That’s the best revenge. You’ve got the numbers. Get rid of that S**m B*g.
Cam
Republicans want to erase LGBTQ people from existence.
TomG
They would also like to get rid of blacks and asians too.
TomG
I wish that Texas would just secede from the union and they can start their own nation, make Trump their dictator for life and forget any aid from Washington DC. That seems to be what they want anyway.
Fahd
Texas is my least favorite of the states; I have been a few times and have many more bad impressions than good. I try not to go there, because of an admittedly unreasonable fear of not being able to leave. Still, my heart goes out to those non-Republicans putting up the good fight…I sincerely believe that in time the state government will be wrestled back out of the hands of the wacko minority that now controls it.
missvamp
i grow more & more ashamed of my state every day. i promise you, we’re not all insane. there are alot of rational, normal people here & we all hate hotwheels & paxton. we want all those scumbags run out of office. we’ve wanted them gone for years. gohmert, ted cruz, dan patrick- every f-ing rethuglican. they all need to go! they’ve done so much damage, it will take a decade to reverse it all.
My2CentsWorth
A lot of the bad that is happening in Texas is spreading to the rest of the nation.
Mack
Texas’s one star flag is actually their public rating.
Hank31
Not really sure what this is all about. Obergefell does not compel private parties to recognize gay marriages or any other kind of marriages or to take any action with respect to marriages. So the legislator is really just asking the AG for a re-statement of the obvious.
The moment to start worrying is when a red state takes a concrete step to defy Obergefell, thus triggering a legal challenge which will give SCOTUS the chance to reconsider it. It’s been more than 6 years, but that moment has not yet come.
Chrisk
I thought the more obvious way to invalidate Obergefell is through their BS Religious Freedom Laws. Just like their doing with making abortion illegal after 6 weeks. Just keep stripping peoples rights away piece by piece.
However, now that they’ve got a Republican Supreme Court and a possible Republican take over anything is possible.
cuteguy
If we don’t pack the Supreme Court to undo the damage set forth by the ex prez Chump and that ugly turtle Moscow Mitch, we are going to lose our rights as humans. We are all in danger with this current court
Cam
Republicans are anti-American and yet media never calls them out.
For YEARS Republicans would talk about states rights, and media never once pointed out that it was a rallying cry of the Confederacy. Republicans would march with confederate flags and media wouldn’t point out that these were the flags of traitors to America until massive backlash on Twitter and other social media forced their hand.
And here Texas is trying to claim that a Federal Ruling has no sway over them.
Republicans hate American and yet media keeps amplifying their B.S. line about being patriots.
Invader7
texas ALREADY is the WORST state ever !!! Fighting for the bottom ranking !!!
Invader7
Dear Republithugs : God HATES you. Y’all have DEEP seated , long term INFERIORITY complexes and are lousy lays !!!