Houston to withdraw pastor subpoenas

Houston Mayor Annise Parker announced today that the city’s legal department will withdraw subpoenas of five pastors who supported a lawsuit challenging an LGBT ordinance she supports.

“This is an issue that has weighed heavily on my mind for the last two weeks,” Parker said, calling today’s decision “the right move for the city.”

Lawyers for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which defended the pastors, cautiously declared victory.

“The mayor really had no choice but to withdraw these subpoenas, which should never have been served in the first place,” attorney Erik Stanley said. “We are gratified that the First Amendment rights of the pastors have triumphed over government overreach and intimidation.”

Lawyers for the city of Houston had given the five pastors until Oct. 10 to hand over sermons and electronic communications with congregants containing their opinions on homosexuality and gender identity. City lawyers claimed the subpoenas were necessary to defend a lawsuit against the city. Opponents of an LGBT anti-bias policy adopted by the city council sued on Aug. 5 after Parker’s administration invalidated a petition to place the ordinance on the November ballot.

Following an outcry over the sermon request, Parker’s administration struck the word “sermons” from the subpoenas on Oct. 17. But her opponents maintained the rest of the subpoena demands trampled just as hard on the Constitution’s free speech and religious liberty protections. Parker credited pastors and religious leaders she met with Tuesday with helping sway her decision.

“These pastors came to me for civil discussions about the issues,” Parker said of the meetings. “They came without political agendas, without hate in their hearts, and without any desire to debate the merits of the [ordinance].”

But Dave Welch, one of the subpoenaed pastors, told me in an email he remains skeptical of the mayor. “Not one local pastor involved in this was either at the meeting or received any contact by the mayor,” he told me. The subpoenas haven’t been officially withdrawn yet, and the lawsuit over the petition drive remains.

The mayor has had little support from the right or the left since the subpoena saga began. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and others encouraged pastors to send sermons or Bibles as a form of peaceful protest. So far, a city spokeswoman claims the mayor’s office has received between 500 and 1,000 Bibles.

“Actually, I think it was a very productive way for folks who disagreed with our legal strategy to express that disagreement, and I’m happy to share the Bibles with those who may want them,” Parker told Houston’s KPRC.

At the first city council meeting since the subpoenas went viral, council member Brad Bradford, a firm supporter of the ordinance, told Parker she should withdraw the subpoenas.

“They are not going to move the ball one iota toward determining whether the signatures that are on the petition are valid or not,” Bradford said Oct. 22. “That’s an objective test. What the ministers said or did not say or didn’t do has nothing to do with what is actually on the document and whether it meets the charter prescriptions or not.”

Today’s developments have already refocused some of the debate back to the petition itself. The lawsuit is scheduled for trial in January. It challenges city attorney David Feldman’s authority and his decision to disqualify thousands of signatures because of the handwriting, despite the approval of a notary. City officials maintain thousands of signatures had to be thrown out because they didn’t meet city charter requirements.

But petition supporters remain steadfast as well, and a planned rally for religious liberty is set for Sunday. To keep up the pressure, the subpoenaed pastors, Huckabee, some of Duck Dynasty’s Robertson family, and others will host a nationwide simulcast from Houston’s Grace Church. Organizers from the Family Research Council (FRC) say 2,500 churches and small groups have signed up to watch.

“The citizens of Houston have a right to vote, and Mayor Parker has denied them that right,” FRC President Tony Perkins said. “America must see the totalitarianism that accompanies the redefinition of marriage and human sexuality, which results in citizens being denied their most fundamental rights.”