Texas AG Pledges to Defend Anti-Sodomy Laws

metroweekly.com:

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.Among the cases that Thomas suggested revisiting were past rulings dealing with the ability of married couples to use contraception in the privacy of their homes, the right of same-sex couples to marry, and the 2003 Lawrence v.

Texas decision, which overturned state laws criminalizing consensual same-sex conduct.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.