Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined an Oklahoma-led multistate amicus brief urging an en banc rehearing of a decision by the Denver-based U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals that threatens the freedom of religious groups to select their own leaders and operate free from the entanglements of government overregulation. In that case, a faith-based K-12 religious school fired a chaplain who sued to challenge his termination. Typically, a court will decide preliminarily, and as a […]
Amicus Brief
Paxton Joins Amicus Brief Supporting Religious Liberty
Attorney General Ken Paxton joined a multistate amicus brief in support of religious liberty, in a case that is pending in the Colorado Court of Appeals. Scardina v. Masterpiece Cakeshop is the second case brought against Jack Phillips, a baker, under state public accommodation laws—this time because he refused on religious grounds to make a custom cake celebrating a customer’s gender transition. The previous case against Mr. Phillips was resolved in his favor by the United States Supreme Court. The amicus brief argues that the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause prevents the government from enforcing state laws that interfere with Americans’ exercise of their religious beliefs. […]
Paxton Joins Multistate Coalition in Defense of Religious Liberty
Attorney General Ken Paxton joined a 11-state coalition in defense of religious liberty, challenging Virginia’s requirement that photographers shoot weddings that conflict with their religious beliefs. Virginia’s Act is just the latest instance in a series of leftist applications of public accommodation laws to unconstitutionally burden individual’s First Amendment rights. “States cannot compel individuals to violate their deeply held religious beliefs, and cannot compel speech by artists—or anyone else—to advance a left-wing cultural agenda.” Attorney […]
Paxton Joins Multistate Coalition in Demanding Protection of Seminary’s Religious Liberties
Attorney General Paxton joined an Amicus Brief along with 15 other states to fight for the rights of Fuller Theological Seminary, which expelled two students who entered same-sex marriages after their admission. The Seminary’s religious liberty, which serves as the basis for its removal of these students, is protected not only under the First Amendment, but also under the Department of Education’s 2020 religious freedom regulation. But the former students urge a much narrower interpretation—and ultimately incorrect […]