Sermon subpoena request was overbroad, Houston mayor acknowledges
Mayor Annise Parker. Image from the City of Houston website.
Pro bono lawyers representing the city of Houston used overly broad language when they subpoenaed sermons by pastors who opposed the city’s equal rights ordinance, Houston Mayor Annise Parker said on Wednesday.
Alliance Defending Freedom filed a motion to quash (PDF) the subpoenas on behalf of the pastors on Monday, citing First Amendment concerns, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports. After a firestorm erupted over the subpoenas, Mayor Annise Parker and City Attorney David Feldman appeared to be distancing themselves from the request, according to the Law Blog and the Houston Chronicle.
In a post at the Alliance Defending Freedom website, two of the subpoenaed ministers called Parker a “bully” and said she was trying to chill their speech.
At the mayor’s weekly press conference on Wednesday, City Attorney David Feldman said the subpoena request was intended to gather information on advice given by the pastors to parishioners about collecting petition signatures to repeal the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, known as HERO. The city is fighting a lawsuit over its rejection of the petitions based on a determination that too few valid signatures were gathered. The Houston Chronicle covered the press conference.
Houston Mayor Annise Parker said at the press conference that there was “no question” the wording on the subpoena was overly broad, but she also thinks “there was some misinterpretation on the other side.”
Parker said she has been “vilified coast to coast” based on “one word in a very long legal document which I know nothing about and would never have read.”
“It’s a normal day at the office for me,” she said of the controversy.
The Law Blog linked to one of the subpoenas (PDF), which sought “all speeches, presentations, or sermons related to [HERO], the petition, Mayor Annise Parker, homosexuality, or gender identity prepared by, delivered by, revised by, or approved by you or in your possession.”
Feldman said the city will clarify the type of information being sought.
