Texas Looks To ‘Religious Liberty’ Laws To Avoid Marrying Same-Sex Couples

Posted by | June 29, 2015 08:00 | Filed under: News Behaving Badly Politics

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton hopes his state’s religious liberty laws will allow officials to deny same-sex couples the right to marry.

…Paxton announced Sunday that local officials responsible for issuing marriage licenses may, under state or federal religious liberty protections, be able to refuse to issue licenses to same-sex couples.

While the notice from Paxton doesn’t challenge the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of marriage equality, meaning that same-sex couples should be able to marry in Texas across the state on Monday, it does assert that specific local officials “may” be able to refuse to issue those licenses.

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Copyright 2015 Liberaland
By: Alan

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66 responses to Texas Looks To ‘Religious Liberty’ Laws To Avoid Marrying Same-Sex Couples

  1. allison1050 June 29th, 2015 at 08:16

    Well, let’s see how long that will last. ;o)

    • jybarz June 29th, 2015 at 08:29

      I hope not a nanosecond longer than necessary.

  2. jybarz June 29th, 2015 at 08:27

    I hope not a nanosecond longer.

  3. jybarz June 29th, 2015 at 08:33

    The bastards won’t stop reloading.
    I hope they get something nuclear this time.
    They’re like zombies… no brains, no hearts.

    • Larry Schmitt June 29th, 2015 at 08:40

      Zombies have brains. The ones they eat.

  4. Larry Schmitt June 29th, 2015 at 08:39

    So maybe their employers can “refuse to pay them” for , you know, not doing their jobs. And hire someone who is actually willing to comply with the law.

    • mea_mark June 29th, 2015 at 09:12

      It’s Texas, a right to work state, they most certainly can. I hope lots of firings take place and there are a lot less religious bigots working in government in the future.

      • Larry Schmitt June 29th, 2015 at 09:14

        Let them start their own business, where they can discriminate to their hearts’ content. But as long as they work for the gummint, they can’t.

      • Larry Schmitt June 29th, 2015 at 09:42

        And maybe that includes Paxton, since he seems to be encouraging employees to break the law. Isn’t that a crime in itself?

  5. Warman1138 June 29th, 2015 at 08:45

    They got to have an enemy. Throughout the history of the right side of the isle, they always have to have an enemy. So they can pretend they have something to defend and deflect attention away from their disingenuousness.

    • The Original Just Me June 29th, 2015 at 10:23

      Hitler had his Jews.

  6. Obewon June 29th, 2015 at 09:07

    ‘There ain’t no Federal supremacy clause’-Texas A.G. Ken Paxton is constitutionally illiterate. Article VI, Paragraph 2 of the U.S. Constitution is commonly referred to as the Supremacy Clause. It establishes that the federal constitution, and federal law generally, take precedence over state laws, and even state constitutions. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/supremacy_clause

    • Larry Schmitt June 29th, 2015 at 09:13

      I thought anyone with a high school diploma knew that. But maybe Paxton went to school in Texas, so he has an excuse.

      • SoSezYou June 29th, 2015 at 11:52

        What is bizarre is that he got his law degree from University of Virginia School of Law, one of the most prestigious law schools in the country. So, I guess he forgot most of it, huh? Same with Ted Cruz, who got his at Princeton. Then spends his Texas legal life stuck on stupid.

        • whatthe46 June 29th, 2015 at 14:04

          they paid for those grades.

    • Chinese Democracy June 29th, 2015 at 12:17

      I think the ACLU in Texas has a few court cases in their future

      • mea_mark June 29th, 2015 at 20:27

        It’s all part of the plan to bankrupt Texas so they can raise the sales tax putting the burden of the expenses of the state on the poor.

    • mcalleyboy June 29th, 2015 at 23:01

      Make all the same sex, anti-gun laws you like, what good does it do if nobody will follow them and you can’t enforce them.

  7. fahvel June 29th, 2015 at 10:24

    why would any sane same sex couple want to live in any of these miserable in bred states??

    • whatthe46 June 29th, 2015 at 10:39

      why would any inbred, racist, bigot ignorant asswipe, want to stay in this country when they have every right to leave.

  8. The Original Just Me June 29th, 2015 at 10:26

    How many Citizens TAX dollars are being wasted on nonsense causes by SO CALLED CONSERVATIVES ? You lost and are going down in big flames. Live with it.

    • Ron Witt June 29th, 2015 at 11:28

      think you got that backwards.

      • SoSezYou June 29th, 2015 at 11:48

        A brand spanking new sock puppet.

      • Chinese Democracy June 29th, 2015 at 12:21

        conservatives lost the culture wars… they are just in the 7 stages of grieving

        1. denial ( poor Texas)

  9. labman57 June 29th, 2015 at 10:28

    Bigotry and intolerance in the name of “states’ rights” and “religious liberty”? Where have we heard this before?

    Why is it that so many conservative politicians are anxious to repeat the mistakes of the past by becoming this era’s version of George Wallace?

    • whatthe46 June 29th, 2015 at 10:40

      it’s all they know and they are stuck in the pass. stuck on stupid.

  10. William June 29th, 2015 at 10:52

    Keep up the good work Texas

    • Greebo June 29th, 2015 at 11:56

      HEY – my daughter was born there.

      • Dwendt44 June 29th, 2015 at 12:02

        My sympathies.

        • Greebo June 29th, 2015 at 12:10

          Thanks. She left at the age of two weeks. So no remaining damage.

      • William June 29th, 2015 at 12:59

        Were you able to get out before the Jade Helm takeover, or are you now living in an abandoned Wal-Mart?

        • whatthe46 June 29th, 2015 at 13:47

          LOL

        • Greebo June 29th, 2015 at 13:52

          We found an insuffiently guarded trail to New Mexico.

  11. illinoisboy1977 June 29th, 2015 at 11:05

    Okay, let’s look at this from a legal standpoint. The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that two people of the same gender have the legal right to marry. Now, if you go to a church, they can still refuse to perform the ceremony, because churches are not “for-profit” corporations and they’re completely allowed to refuse to perform a service that goes against the tenets of their faith. Pastors will even refuse to marry heterosexual couples, if they feel that the marriage will not be in keeping with the traditions and doctrine of the church. This is completely protected, under the First Amendment.
    A government employee, on the other hand, is NOT a functionary of a church or religious organization. He/she is a representative of the government and is fully bound by all equality clauses and statutes, which are included in the Constitution, the Civil Rights Act and numerous Supreme Court decisions. You can claim all the religious objections you want, as a government employee, but you’re still required to carry out the functions of your position. If you don’t, you should be fired.

    • Larry Schmitt June 29th, 2015 at 11:12

      A gay couple is not going to ask a church to perform their wedding that is against the idea. If they belong to the church, they already know how the pastor and the church members feel. There are any number of progressive Christian denominations who welcome everyone. That’s why this claim of “religious oppression” is so bogus. No one is being forced to do anything against their beliefs.

      • Dwendt44 June 29th, 2015 at 11:58

        And of course you don’t need a church or clergy to get married anyway. Civil ceremonies are every bit as legal and binding as a religious one is.

        • tracey marie June 29th, 2015 at 12:14

          religous marriages are neither legal or binding without the secular license. I love that fact, it sends the paranoid phobes into fits of rage.

      • illinoisboy1977 June 29th, 2015 at 13:20

        Exactly! I’ve been arguing with a friend of mine, who’s a Catholic priest. He’s all prepared to go to jail, when he refuses to perform same sex marriages. I told him that can’t happen, but he’s convinced that the Supreme Court can just rewrite the Constitution as it pleases and all the clergymen are going to be put into camps, or some such nonesense.

        • Larry Schmitt June 29th, 2015 at 13:55

          I guess he has drunk the consecrated Kool-Aid.

        • Bunya June 29th, 2015 at 13:55

          Yeah well, I’ll put the “I’m prepared to go to jail” schtick in the same category as “I’ll set myself on fire if gay marriage becomes law”.
          .
          I know of two priests who were excommunicated because they supported gay marriage. On the other hand, in Brazil an Archbishop excommunicated doctor, nurses and the mother of a 9-year-old girl who was raped and impregnated by her stepfather, for saving the little girls life. Go figure.

          • Larry Schmitt June 29th, 2015 at 14:01

            It’s easy to say you’ll go to jail when you know there’s zero chance of it happening. And for the religions’ true believers, nothing transcends their precious principles. They’re all better off out of that kind of church. I hope they told the bishop to go eff himself, in their best Portuguese.

  12. SoSezYou June 29th, 2015 at 11:47

    I just cannot see how he can say public officials can use religious liberty laws. The DOJ should sweep in, stating heavy fines and jail times to people purposely violating federal law. Let’s see how deep their fervor is and how much money these freakazoid Texas billionaire tea partiers have to spend for their minion martyrs.

  13. Greebo June 29th, 2015 at 11:49

    Religion can “excuse all sorts of eccentricity. Genocide, for example” (Sir Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time). In comparison, refusing to do your job, is easy.

  14. tracey marie June 29th, 2015 at 12:12

    He also said anyone refusing should be prepared to be fined or sued because the law is clear.

    • Larry Schmitt June 29th, 2015 at 12:15

      Will he pay their fines and court costs personally, plus any time lost from work?

      • tracey marie June 29th, 2015 at 12:17

        Several lawyers for a christian group said they will help the phobes pro-bono. There is no way they may legally refuse, paxton covered his ass with the “be prepared” comment. He knows it is nothing more then the last squealings of the phobes.

        • Larry Schmitt June 29th, 2015 at 12:29

          It’s too bad they can’t donate their time to an actual worthy cause, like helping low-income people who can’t afford a lawyer when they get caught up in the “justice” system.

  15. rg9rts June 29th, 2015 at 17:48

    If only they would put the same effort into being lawful as they do into circumventing it…….

    • whatthe46 June 29th, 2015 at 20:33

      they forget “the gays” vote.

      • rg9rts June 30th, 2015 at 01:30

        And women and the poor, and the educated, and students , and minorities……sadly too many vote against their own self interests

        • whatthe46 June 30th, 2015 at 01:32

          but… the times are a changing. and the repukes made a big statement by excluding them all. only the knuckleheads that love their racist heritage won’t change. the fact is, they are outnumbered.

          • rg9rts June 30th, 2015 at 01:37

            They neglect the fact that 7,000,000+ people are enrolled in ACA …and they want to repeal it…kicking all those votes down the street

            • whatthe46 June 30th, 2015 at 01:41

              my neighbor, whom i love like a little sister. she’s white, her daughter is 1/2 mexican, her father is a conservative repuke. he got sick, but before that, he didn’t want a darn thing to do with Obamacare or Obama. guess what, he got Obamacare and was greatful. but, the asswipe, still doesn’t appreciate what our President did for him. go figure.

              • rg9rts June 30th, 2015 at 01:50

                And admit he was wrong?? What does he think of them trying to take it away from him??

                • whatthe46 June 30th, 2015 at 02:08

                  he won’t talk to her about it anymore. he said, after his surgery that he needed, and received after he got Obamacare, was that his co-pay was $45.00. i don’t get it. and neither does she.

        • whatthe46 June 30th, 2015 at 01:34

          didn’t coultergiest say, no one should be able to attend college anymore because they produce liberals? what she meant by that was that, education creates thinkers and they (the right [wrong] don’t want that}?

  16. mcalleyboy June 29th, 2015 at 22:59

    If this is such an important issue why make a religious one, why make the church accept a gay union, it’s not a marriage it’s a partnership. The gay don’t want to create their own church, they want to shovel it down everyone’s throat, well it’s not working regardless of laws.

    • tracey marie June 29th, 2015 at 23:10

      lol, who told you churchs have to accept anything. This is secular law not theocratic. Stop fantasizing about what you want gay men to “shove down your throat” you sound creepy

      • mcalleyboy June 29th, 2015 at 23:25

        How long before it becomes theocratic law you guys love to push it. Who’s creepy I don’t post pictures of animals..get it?

  17. evy guthrie June 30th, 2015 at 00:52

    Hope every clerk or judge who actually tries to follow Paxton’s advice ends up in jail and unemployed. Taxpayer dollars at work. DO YOUR JOB STATE EMPLOYEES.

  18. Closet Atheist June 30th, 2015 at 21:04

    If you are a clerk and it is against your religion, then find another job. I am sure Hobby Lobby or Chic-a-fil are hiring.

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