Texas Lawmaker Wants to Invalidate Gay Marriages

[Behind the Aegis]

Texas is truly on a tear. In recent months the state has banned abortion after 6 weeks, proposed wildly gerrymandered Congressional maps, and passed a law barring trans kids from playing sports. And now one lawmaker has asked the state’s attorney general if a pesky landmark Supreme Court decision on marriage equality means Texans have to recognize gay marriages.

Specifically, Republican State Rep. James White sent a letter to Attorney General Ken Paxton last week seeking his official legal opinion on whether the 2015 decision Obergefell v. Hodges, which requires states to license and recognize same-sex marriages, means that private citizens must also recognize those marriages. After all, White writes, Texas state laws defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman haven’t been officially amended or repealed.

Paxton’s office did not respond to Jezebel’s request for comment on White’s letter before publication time. The AG’s website says that most opinions are released within 180 days, but the amount of time varies based on research involved and how many briefs are received.

White uses a twisted legal argument, claiming that the Supreme Court doesn’t actually erase state laws it finds to be unconstitutional— it just leaves them dormant and unenforced by state officials. Private citizens, meanwhile, aren’t bound by those rulings. If the Attorney General were to agree with White, it could allow businesses to refuse to serve gay couples a la Masterpiece Cakeshop and maybe even let individuals sue gay couples for breaking the never-revoked law.

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First they came for...

[Tribetime]

1. Can we invalidate Texas lawmakers

[roamer65]

2. I'd buy that for a dollar.

[lindysalsagal]

3. Return Texas to the stone age. Confiscate their phones, laptops

Tv's and gaming tech. Let them live by candlelight.

[Bettie]

6. Given the state of their electric grid

that may not be too far off.

[rownesheck]

4. With each passing day

I get more and more pissed at the person in my family lineage who said, "Hey guys! Let's move to Texas!"

I wish I could travel back in time and change their mind.

I've often asked my wife if we can just uproot and move somewhere with reasonable people in the statehouse. Hell, at this point, I think I'd rather be homeless in Hawaii than living in this backward ass state.

[Buckeyeblue]

5. It seems as if the far right is just throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks

This idea that people can sue each other without establishing personal harm seems to fly in the face of hundreds of years of law. I'm not even sure how it works.

It's also interesting that there haven't been any lawsuits filed under the 6 week abortion law yet.

But I do think the SC will throw abortion back to the states and probably same sex marriage as well.

This very divided Republic is going to continue to be divided. I think more than it already is. As long as poor people vote Republican, Republicans will continue to try to burn the country down.

[Best_man23]

7. Maybe we should start referring to Texas as Gilead

Next they're going to ask if Loving v. Virginia means private citizens have to recognize interracial marriages.

[lindysalsagal]

8. Texagil. Gileass. Either one works for me.