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Shortly after the Supreme Court overturned the fundamental right to abortion, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) appears to have expressed support for Judge Clarence Thomas’ agreed view that the Supreme Court may reconsider other precedents that may be considered “provably wrong.” , including those affecting the LGBTQ community.
One of the cases mentioned by Thomas was Lawrence v. Texaswhich does not allow states to ban intimate same-sex relationships. The landmark 2003 decision repealed a 1973 Texas law that criminalized the act of sodomy. But like Rowe vs. Wade was overturned, Paxton said he would defend the repealed U.S. sodomy law if the Supreme Court followed Thomas’ remarks and eventually reconsidered Lawrence.
“I mean, there are all kinds of issues here, but the Supreme Court has certainly intervened in issues that I don’t think there is any constitutional provision to deal with,” Paxton said in an interview with NewsNation presenter Leland Witter on Friday. . “They were legislative issues and this is one of those issues and there may be more. So it will depend on the issue and on what the state law said at the time. “
Asked whether the Texas legislature would pass such a sodomy law and whether Paxton would defend it and present it to the Supreme Court, the Republican Attorney General, who is running for re-election in November, suggested it would be convenient to support a law banning the same intimate – sexual relations.
“Yes, look, my job is to defend state law and I will continue to do so,” Paxton told Viter. “This is my job according to the Constitution and I certainly want and can do it.
A Paxton spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post.
The Attorney General’s support for a sodomy law comes as Texas is among 13 states with “trigger bans” designed to take effect once deer was removed, which will ban abortion within 30 days. Prior to last week’s Supreme Court ruling, Texas had already limited abortions to the first six weeks of pregnancy, when many people are still unaware they are pregnant. Paxton had also advised that prosecutors could prosecute criminal cases under an unenforced 1925 state law before the ban began.
Abortion is already banned in these states. Others will follow.
On Tuesday, Harris County Judge Christine Weims (D) issued a temporary restraining order to allow clinics to offer abortions for at least two weeks without prosecution. Weims ruled that out in advancedeer The ban, imposed by Paxton and prosecutors, “would inevitably and irreparably freeze the provision of abortions in the vital last weeks, in which safer abortion care remains available and legal in Texas.”
A Texas judge issued a temporary restraining order on June 28, allowing some clinics to resume abortions within six weeks of pregnancy. (Video: Reuters)
After a culture-shaking opinion on Friday at Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Health advocates, legal experts and Democrats are wondering whether the conservative majority of the Supreme Court could repeal other rights in the coming years.
Thomas took aim Lawrence in an opinion agreed with his conservative counterparts in the Supreme Court to set aside deer. Justice was also mentioned Griswald v. Connecticutthe 1965 decision, which allows married couples the right to buy and use contraception without government restrictions, and Obergefel vs. Hodgesthe case of 2015, which legalized the equality of marriage.
“In future cases, we need to review all the precedents of this court on the merits, including Griswold,, Lawrenceand Obergefel,Thomas wrote on page 119 of the opinion in Dobbs. “Since any decision is essentially “provably wrong”… we are obliged to “correct the error” found in these precedents. “
Thomas added: “Following the annulment of these apparently erroneous decisions, the question remains whether other constitutional provisions guarantee the countless rights generated by our cases in due process.”
Biden and other critics fear Thomas’ “ultimate” position on contraception
However, the five other conservative judges who joined the ruling explicitly tried to reassure themselves that these other rights would not be exercised. The dissenting judge’s opinion “suggests that our decision is questionable Griswold,, Eisenstadt,, Lawrenceand Obergefel. … But we have stated it unequivocally [n]something in this view must be understood to call into question precedents that do not relate to abortion, ”they wrote.
Thomas’ opinion was condemned by President Biden as part of what he described as “the extreme and dangerous path that the court is now taking us.”
On June 24, President Biden made a strong defense to defend against abortion following the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling overturning Rowe against Wade. (Video: The Washington Post)
As early as 1960, every state in the country had an anti-sodomy law, according to the New York Times. IN Lawrence, The Supreme Court overturned a Texas law banning gay sex. This opinion overturned a controversial 1986 decision that upheld a law against sodomy in Georgia by 5-4 votes. This decision found that the Constitution does not protect gay sex, even in the privacy of people’s homes.
Judge Anthony M. Kennedy wrote of the majority in the 6 to 3 decision that gays have “a right to respect for their privacy.”
“The state cannot belittle their existence or control their fate by making their personal sexual behavior a crime,” Kennedy wrote. “Their right to liberty under the due process clause gives them the full right to participate in their conduct without government intervention.
The Supreme Court overturned the most important decisions
In his disagreement, Judge Antonin Scalia wrote the opinion of the majority Lawrence was “a product of the culture of the legal profession, which has largely joined the so-called homosexual agenda, by which I mean the program promoted by some homosexual activists aimed at removing the moral disgrace traditionally associated with homosexual behavior.
Republicans welcomed the Supreme Court’s ruling, with former Vice President Mike Pence calling for a national ban on abortion. While House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (California) declined to say whether he would support the Supreme Court to review the rights in some of the cases mentioned by Thomas, other Republicans were more vocal in their position. Utah Senate President Stuart Adams (right) has said he will support the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex unions if the Supreme Court reconsiders the equality of marriage, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
The LGBTQ community is preparing for the abolition of rights after the abortion decision
Paxton also praised the abortion decision, announcing in a press release that June 24 is already an annual holiday for the Texas Attorney General’s office.
His comments about same-sex relations in Texas have been met with disgust by critics and liberals, including Rochelle Garza, the Democratic nominee for Attorney General who is fighting Paxton in November.
“Ro was only the first – they will not stop until they abolish all our civil rights,” she tweeted on Tuesday.
When asked again Friday whether he would support the Texas legislature, which is potentially testing the sodomy law, Paxton was reluctant, but said he would defend the law if the Supreme Court reconsidered it. Lawrence.
“I have to look at it,” he told NewsNation. “It’s a whole new territory for us, so I have to do it [see] how the legislature is structured and whether we think we can protect it. In the end, if it’s constitutional, we’ll go defend it. “
Frederick J. Fromer contributed to this report.
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