Congratulations to Jared Woodfill and team for their successful appeal to the Texas Supreme Court regarding Houston Mayor Annise Parker’s unlawful attempt to keep citizens from voting on her Houston Equal Rights Ordinance. From the opinion of the court:
We conclude that the Houston City Council has not performed a ministerial duty and there is no adequate remedy by appeal. Accordingly, we conditionally grant mandamus relief.
…
The legislative power reserved to the people of Houston is not being honored. Accordingly, without hearing oral argument, TEX.R.APP.P.52.8(c), we conditionally grant the writ of mandamus lest the actions of city officials “thwart[] . . . the will of the public.” See Coalson, 610 S.W.2d at 747. The City Council is directed to comply with its duties, as specified in the City Charter, that arise when the City Secretary certifies that a referendum petition has a sufficient number of valid signatures. Any enforcement of the ordinance shall be suspended, and the City Council shall reconsider the ordinance. If the CityCouncil does not repeal the ordinance byAugust 24, 2015, then by that date the City Council must order that the ordinance be put to popular vote during the November 2015 election. The writ will issue only if the City Council does not comply.
Parker forced this upon citizens and then tried every trick in the book to keep citizens from voting on it. Thank goodness her term in office is almost over. Council can choose to repeal it or they can put it on the November ballot, which will add a lot of spice to the open race for Mayor. Click here for background.
Well done Jared!
Sad day in Texas.
Actually Oscar,
It is a wonderful day for the LAW in Texas. Parker’s heavy handed approach to this was wrong. If voters approve it, fine. If not, fine. But at least they will have a say.
Yes. It’s always sad when us voters are actually given a say in the rules we are expected to live by. I mean, what do we know? It’s always so much better if a few politicians just tell us what to do. We’re so much better off if we just don’t think too much.
It’s always good when we give haters and bigots a chance to make discrimination the law of the city. That’s sarcasm, by the way.
The world would be a better place if hateful, bigoted people like Woodfill stayed home and stewed in their own bitterness.
And thus we have the essence of the liberal dilemma. “In order to make the world a better place we must force those silly plebes to do our bidding. Things would be so much easier if they would simply realize that we know better than they. Democracy is fine – but only when the people are willing to vote the way we want . Otherwise, we’ll just shove it down their throats.”
Sorry Ross, this time Her Highness the mayor will actually have to abide by the rule of law and pay attention to the folks who elected her.
It’s a shame she wasn’t as passionate about actually making sure the city wasn’t bankrupt. . . . .
Sometimes, the unthinking, hateful types need to be dragged, kicking and screaming into the present by elected officials, without any recourse to a popular vote. I am sure there were those that thought Truman should have been impeached for his executive order integrating the military – they were wrong, just like Woodfill and his friends are now. There have been haters and bigots fighting anti-discrimination laws since the civil rights movement started.All of them are wrong headed and deserve no chance to state their case at the ballot box.
Congratulations to Jared Woodfill. His relentless and effective prosecution of this case ensured that democracy has a chance in Houston. The Mayor and her coalition desperately chant that most people in Houston support their ordinance. We will see in November.
I am glad someone went to bat for those of us who benefit from these cases without having to actually spend anytime pursuing the case itself. Pretty smart, gutsy and time consuming. You have to give him credit if you care about your right to vote.
I think it will be a close vote, and probably one of the larger city turnouts in recent years. Many of the loudest opponents do not live in the City of Houston. I believe the pastor who spoke at the press conference, Hernan Castono, lives and votes in Katy, and I could not find a Harris County voter registration on one of the others who spoke.
Ross, why do you read “Big Jolly” and then comment? Is it for an opportunity to get your agenda against conservatives where there might actually be some conservatives reading it? You use the word “hate” a lot, when it actually sounds like you hate political conservatives. A political conservative, does not have to be a social conservative to believe that the Mayor was not elected to “direct law for the great unwashed masses”. She is not royalty and we still (so far) have a democracy. Get over it, people want to vote (or at least those that exercise their right to vote want to vote) and not have the government controlling them, only to say “for our own good” or because “we the people are too stupid to be liberal on all issues”.
Ross is a good example of our grim LGBT Puritans. Everybody must do, say and believe exactly as they do or they will brand you with the Scarlet Letter of hater, unthinker, or bigot. No grace extended, no consideration of others, total discrimination based on lifestyle choice.
Massachusetts had Cotton Mather, we have Ross.
I am wondering if Annise Parker paid half as much attention to the City finances as she does to Gay Rights would we be 10 billion in debt instead of 20 billion? Just saying……