The Pastors of Houston, Texas, are once again going to the mat for their Constitutional rights. Recently they fought to retain their First Amendment rights as mayor Annise Parker illegally demanded the contents of sermons and private emails for her office to review.
In apparent retaliation for the blowback, Mayor Parker is now coming for their Sixth Amendment rights, attempting to use her executive powers as mayor to deny them a jury trial.
All of this still goes back to Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance, nicknamed “the bathroom bill.”
To review:
Once the Equal Rights Ordinance was adopted by the city of Houston, it was challenged by petition. That petition boasted thousands more signatures than it required, but the mayor’s office arbitrarily threw them out and claimed that the petition was insufficient.
A group of Houston citizens, led by a coalition of local pastors, filed suit. They demanded that the ERO be brought to the public for a vote. In response, the mayor’s office subpoenaed sermons, notes, and private communications from local pastors in an effort to monitor them for anti-gay language.
The public response to that action led Mayor Parker to walk back her subpoenas, but it seems she was simply biding her time before the next assault…
The city has now submitted motions to deny a jury hearing of the plaintiff’s claims. If the plaintiffs were to win such a trial, the ERO would go back to the Houston City Council to consider a full repeal. If they did not repeal, an election would be ordered and the registered voters of Houston would decide the measure by referendum.
The city, on behalf of Mayor Parker has submitted briefs, “demanding a ruling that a special master would be appointed to hear evidence, keeping it out of the hands of a jury or judge.”
Given the complex and technical nature of the issues presented in this lawsuit, and the difficulty of applying the various legal requirements to plaintiffs’ deficient but voluminous referendum petition, defendants ask this court to appoint a special master.
All of which loosely translates to:
“No jury can be expected to understand the nuances of the ERO without being distracted by the possibility of male predators being allowed to use women’s restrooms because they claim to identify as females. Also, the plaintiff’s petition is long and boring and stupid, so someone adept at using legal loopholes to quash dissent should be appointed to handle it.”
As my own pastor, Michael Walther of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, said before:
The church must be prepared for persecution. After all, our Constitution is only as strong as the people who believe in it, who are willing to protect it. Historically persecution comes in three stages: Libel, litigation, and loss (of liberty mainly, but in some cases, life as well). And as most of us are well aware, these stages are already underway.”
Liberty is once again in the crosshairs as Mayor Parker takes aim, this time at the Sixth Amendment, in punishment to pastors who insist upon continuing to exercise their First Amendment rights in ways she doesn’t like.
