Attorney Jonathan Mitchell has made a career of trying to erode hard-fought rights under the guise of constitutional literalism, and now that Roe v. Wade has fallen, he has his sights set on PrEP access.
Mitchell, the former solicitor general who helped write Texas’ so-called “bounty-hunter” abortion law, opened up his own private firm in 2018 to target several of the High Court’s rulings.
The Dallas Morning News reports that Mitchell’s approach has always been dismantling decisions on the argument that the rulings stray from the Constitution’s language when it was written, as opposed to the idea that document is a “living” thing that must adapt to modern knowledge. The Supreme Court seems to be drinking the same 235-year-old Kool-Aid .
And now Mitchell, who clerked under the late, archconservative Antonin Scalia, is pushing to limit access to drugs Descovy and Truvada — two medications that help prevent HIV transmission when taken as PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis.
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The suit states open access to the life-saving meds “enables homosexual behavior.”
Related: Texas GOP declares homosexuality an “abnormal lifestyle choice”
In Kelley v. the United States of America, filed in federal court in 2020, Mitchell is representing clients who say they shouldn’t be forced to provide Descovy and Truvada under the Affordable Care Act.
“The PrEP mandate forces religious employers to provide coverage for drugs that facilitate and encourage homosexual behavior, prostitution, sexual promiscuity, and intravenous drug use,” the lawsuit states. “It also compels religious employers and religious individuals who purchase health insurance to subsidize these behaviors as a condition of purchasing health insurance.”
It’s another worrying example of emboldened conservative lawmakers chipping away at LGBTQ rights.
Last month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton signaled he’s totally on board with using the same approach on the state’s sodomy laws.
Utah Senate President Stuart Adams has also said he’d support the Supreme Court reconsidering same-sex marriage. Utah’s still-existing constitution ban on same-sex unions could be reinstated if the Supreme Court were to overturn Obergefell as it did Roe.
Brian
This is the kind of suit that should be immediately dismissed — with prejudice. And then the government should go after him for filing frivolous or malicious suits.
Our court system is WAY too slow. There are people who can’t afford bail, and they languish in jail cells for years while they await trial. Part of the reason for that is that judges have to waste their time on crap like this. Their schedules shouldn’t have to address this kind of nonsense. Focus on real cases, and get them through.
Seriously, prosecute this man. Then disbar him.
Creamsicle
Not with this SCOTUS. This is the kind of terrible legal argument they will lap up, because it’s trying divine the will of a bunch of dead Founders. This court believes that it is capable of knowing that undead desire, and are more than happy to dismantle the government’s ability to do ANYTHING, because that has always been their goal.
Conservatives want to demonstrate how deeply flawed a government based on enlightenment thinking is, so that they can promote a fascist theocratic white ethno state instead.
It’s y’all-qaeda.
LumpyPillows
You want to bet? Cream has it right.
unreligious
If you seriously think that this court after the recent Kennedy v Bremerton school district coupled with Hobby Lobby will not rule in favor of this you are delusional. Not only won’t it be dismissed he will be hailed as a hero defending “religious freedom “. This court despite their claims of originalism has turned the supremacy clause into meaningless words.
armandov
You are exactly right. Thanks for articulating what I was thinking! This guy is toxic
Kangol2
This talibangelical RepuQ fanatic Mitchell is the same intellectual and legal architect behind Texas’s extreme anti-abortion bill, and he has set repealing same-sex marriage in his sights. He seems a bit obsessed with gay sex, like so many right wingers, and is probably a raging closet case, but whatever he is, he’s a clear and present danger to LGBTQ people!
kevstar69
Did you know that Jesse Lee Peterson, the 71 year old black (anti- black) homophobic preacher is secretly a gay pedophile? Yes he says we are are all evil, while having a gay relationship with a married man for thirty years and coming on to straight guys?
Kangol2
@kevstar69, yes, I saw that about hypocrite DL Christian extremist Jesse Lee Peterson. He also is a self-loathing Black man who called for “White history month” to replace “LGBTQ Pride Month.” I’m surprised Queerty hasn’t reported on him being outed yet!
armandov
It’s amazing how much time and energy this guy wastes trying to destroy gay people. And, despite his vile & hateful behavior, he is a “Xtian”
ZzBomb
I’m about ready to start interrupting church masses and making these people’s lives a living hell. If we don’t get peace, they shouldn’t either. Time to ACT UP
miller2900
…. I may be too old now to march in the streets or “interrupt church masses” but I sure as hell would love to. A very close friend of mine died a decade ago from AIDS related complications and a lot of it was due to his mental and emotional conflicts with being a gay man…. a gay man that had spent his late teens and early 20’s in a Catholic Seminary. Over the years of our friendship, he enlightened me on the hypocrisy that went on behind the scenes at the Seminary. If the stories he told me had even the slightest amount of truth/reality there was more sex happening “behind the scenes” in the Seminary than the alley behind any good gay bar in West Hollywood! I was raised Catholic and remember always hearing the adults talk (gossip) about the Priest and his “housekeeper”. Fast forward to the last 20-years, the stories I heard as a kid back in small town Michigan pale in comparison to the stories I hear about the antics of what remains of the Catholic Church back in that same small town in Michigan AND I’m guessing anywhere across the globe…. within most religions. YIKES, I’m sure we “older” gay men remember the nightmare of Tammy and Jim Baker and the fools that sent them money every week…. which I’m guessing Tammy’s eye make-up alone ate up a lot of the “budget”! Until the average voter/clueless citizen gets it through their small brains that politicians are only out for one person…. themselves, we will continue to have our rights taken away.
RickHeathen
This lawyer is the perfect example of what’s wrong with this world. He’s refusing to mind his own damn business. People like him need to get psychological help. He’s unnaturally obsessed with what consenting adults do in the privacy of their own homes.
abfab
I wonder if there is a single moment or a series of many moments in one’s life that makes someone become a right wing religious republican controlling narrow minded Bible monster under educated passport lacking disgusting hateful distructive low life buzz kill.
miller2900
AMEN!!
Ken A.
It’s a power trip. Just look at his face and you can see the bully in his eyes. It’s Texas, so why is anyone surprised.
Prax07
That dude looks like a Pedo. What ya wanna bet it’ll eventually come out he’s molested a bunch of kids?
Chrisk
Well, now that Roe is no more we knew these nazi shitheads would need more to demonize. They’re drunk on power right now.
gregg2010
This is just the beginning of legal cases that will use religious liberty as a means to deny rights to queers. SCOTUS is set to take away gay marriage, and after that more and more cases will give “religious” businesses and institutions the right to discriminate. I am not optimistic.
CNY1983
“SCOTUS is set to take away gay marriage, and after that more and more cases will give “religious” businesses and institutions the right to discriminate.”
pretty soon youre going to be forced to give an answer to this question: ARE YOU GONNA LET THEM PUSH YOU AROUND?? i would stand out in front of my own church right now with a sign that said TRY READING THE BIBLE INSTEAD OF QUOTING REPUBLICAN INTERPRETATIONS OF IT! pick a day to show your numbers how about a SUNDAY when theyre all at the church.
“It’s y’all-qaeda.”
“I’m about ready to start interrupting church masses and making these people’s lives a living hell. If we don’t get peace, they shouldn’t either. Time to ACT UP”
“…. I may be too old now to march in the streets or “interrupt church masses” but I sure as hell would love to.”
“a right wing religious republican controlling narrow minded Bible monster under educated passport lacking disgusting hateful distructive low life buzz kill.”
CNY1983
I forgot AMEN.
Bosch
Methinks someone is jealous that other people are having gay sex.
LumpyPillows
No one should be surprised. Vote every time you can in every election.
Leo
They don’t wish to subsidize our “lifestyle” but expect us to pay taxes that go to their churches and schools.
SK310
Too many rich pharma-republikkans making money off the drug for this to ever happen methinks
MISTERJETT
seriously, what are people so afraid of?
ondaboat0069
I AM NOT AN ADVOCATE FOR FREQUENT
CHANGES IN LAWS AND CONSTITUTIONS.
BUT LAWS AND INSTITUTIONS MUST CO
HAND IN HAND WITH THE PROGRESS
OF THE HUMAN MIND. AS THAT BECOMES
MORE DEVELOPED, MORE ENLICHTENED
AS NEW DISCOVERIES ARE MADE, NEW
TRUTHS DISCOVERED AND MANNERS AND
OPINIONS CHANGE, WITH THE CHANCE
OF CIRCUMSTANCES, INSTITUTIONS
MUST ADVANCE ALSO TO KEEP PACE
WITH THE TIMES WE MIGHT AS WELL
REQUIRE A MAN TO WEAR STILL THE
COAT WHICH FITTED HIM WHEN A BOY
AS CIVILIZED SOCIETY TO REMAIN
EVER UNDER THE REGIMEN OF THEIR
BARBAROUS ANCESTORS.
Thomas Jefferson
Ed R.
Yeah, denying complete access is a bit extreme, but how many times have I heard on Grindr, No worries, I’m on Prep…and many lie and pass on HIV infection and other STIs? Any middle ground here? Prep and antivirals have given many the illusion of a free pass and have no concept of the AIDS crisis decades earlier, I was in the thick of it, and gives me an entirely different perspective…
linedrive
Uh huh. I don’t think his intent is to protect gay men on Grindr. He just hates homos.
Bosch
If people are lying about being on prep, then it’s even more important to keep it available and accessible. Protecting yourself is much smarter than expecting someone else to protect you.
missvamp
oh great- one more reason to be ashamed of my state. these rethuglicans can f off.
linedrive
What about birth control? Coverage is provided for that. Don’t some people have a religious objection to it? Doesn’t that encourage heterosexual sex for recreation not procreation? I mean, he’s opening up a pretty dumb can of worms here.
abfab
The Republicans new tagline: ”A Pretty Dumb Can Of Worms”
Kangol2
They’re gunning for contraception too!
wikidBSTN
“FOUL” doesn’t even begin to to touch the tippity top of this iceberg of a douche bag.
KyleMichelSullivan
Republicans are evil.
Essie
If people don’t wake the f_ck up and start standing up to these people, we will be back in the dark ages of the 1950s and ’60s in a matter of a few years. They are taking away the rights of women, gays and anyone else they find unacceptable. They don’t even want our children to be educated. It’s scary. We might as well be living under the Taliban.
abfab
This shit too shall pass.
oinkndoink
He will be the next one found on his knees under the stall divider in the public bathroom!