Texas Supreme Court: Repeal Houston Equal Rights Ordinance or put to public vote
The Texas Supreme Court ordered the Houston City Council on Friday to repeal the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance or place it on the November ballot.
The state's highest court also ordered the city to immediately halt enforcement of HERO, which prohibits discrimination against LGBT people in employment, housing, public accommodations, and city contracting. (Read the ruling below)
The court handed down its ruling Friday in a case brought by former Harris County Republican Party Chair Jared Woodfill and other anti-LGBT activists. The court's ruling effectively overrides a district judge's April decision saying the petition to repeal the ordinance lacked enough signatures due to problems including widespread forgery. The opinion says that because City Secretary Anna Russell initially certified the petition, concluding it had enough valid signatures, the City Council had a ministerial duty to repeal HERO or put it up for a public vote.
"But what of the City Council’s complaints of forgery, false oaths, and the like?" the all-Republican court wrote in its 12-page per curiam opinion. "Although these issues were addressed at trial and are now pending before the court of appeals, we note that the City Secretary never claimed the referendum petition was plagued by forgery or perjury. Yet the City Council decided, of its own accord, not to act, disregarding the City Secretary’s certification that the petition had enough signatures."
Read more: http://www.projectq.us/houston/texas_supreme_court_repeal_hero_or_put_to_public_vote?gid=17069
