Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton #wingnut #homophobia metroweekly.com
Speaking with NewsNation anchor Leland Vittert in an interview last Friday, Paxton said that his office would be enforcing Texas anti-abortion statutes and pursuing civil penalties against doctors who provide abortions following the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade
He noted that even if local Democratic district attorneys refused to pursue criminal charges against doctors, the Republican-led Texas Legislature would likely act to compel them to do so, or face consequences
Vittert then brought up Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion overturning Roe, which urged the high court to revisit several cases dealing with “substantive due process” rights that have been recognized by the court but are not explicitly listed in the Constitution[…]
Vittert asked Paxton whether he would support the Texas Legislature passing an anti-sodomy law similar to the one overturned in the Lawrence case, and if he would defend the law in court and bring it to the Supreme Court for reconsideration
Paxton appeared to be amenable to such a development
“Yeah, look, my job is to defend state law, and I’ll continue to do that,” Paxton said. “That is my job under the Constitution, and I’m certainly willing and able to do that”[…]
If Texas were to try and enforce its sodomy law, in the hope of getting the issue back before the nation’s highest court, he seems all too happy to go to war over it
“I’d have to take a look at it,” he told NewsNation. “This is all new territory for us[…]Ultimately, if it’s constitutional, we’re going to go defend it”