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Monday, November 07, 2005
Greg Abbott versus The Bill of Rights
Democratic Texas Attorney General candidate David Van Os has this to say about current Attorney General Greg Abbott's active support for Proposition 2 in the November 8 vote on proposed Constitutional Amendments:
"It is outrageous that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is campaigning publicly arm-in-arm with the forces of prejudice in support of changing the Texas Bill of Rights, much of which has existed since the first Constitution of the Republic of Texas in 1836. If Proposition 2 is enacted it will officially enshrine discrimination against a class of people into the Bill of Rights. The highest duty of the Attorney General as the people's lawyer is to preserve, protect, and defend the Bill of Rights of the people of Texas -- not change it to make some Texans permanent second-class citizens!
"This should come as no surprise. Abbott has a long track record of doing anything necessary to justify discrimination and prejudice against citizens whose choices he disapproves of. As a Justice of the Texas Supreme Court he wrote the Court's opinion denying the Log Cabin Republicans, the gay-lesbian caucus of the Republican Party, the right to have a booth at the 1996 Texas Republican Party Convention. In that case Abbott relied on "strict construction" of the Constitution to hold that the literal words of the Free Speech Clause did not grant the gay Republicans a right to free speech at the State Republican Convention. Yet when it comes to Proposition 2 he argues the exact opposite -- that it should be interpreted by delving into the motives of its legislative sponsors rather than by applying its literal words. When he can use strict construction of wording as a vehicle for discrimination Abbott purports to be a strict constructionist; but when strict construction would stand in his way Abbott wants to ignore the wording and search elsewhere to get the result he wants.
"I'm sick and tired of slick hypocrites using pious platitudes as a smokescreen to wipe out our Constitutional protections so the greedy and powerful can keep getting away with more and more. Enough is enough!"
posted by snarko! at 10:30 AM
 
0 Comments:
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