Regarding your second question, I can tell you from my work as an ACLU activist helping pass/implement the California law allowing equal access to sex segregated activities/facilities in schools, AB 1266, that I heard repeatedly that AB 1266 clarified but did not change existing California law, Cal Educ Code 220, which has similar language to the proposed Houston ordinance. You can see the author of AB 1266, Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, make this claim when he talked in committee about AB 1266, saying "Although current California law already protects students from discrimination in education based on sex and gender identity, many school districts are not in compliance with these requirements. AB 1266 clarifies existing law…" See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA7r9bVpayQ Allen -----Original Message----- From: Volokh, Eugene <vol...@law.ucla.edu> To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics <religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu> Sent: Tue, Oct 14, 2014 11:29 pm Subject: RE: "City subpoenas pastors' sermons in equal rights ordinance case" Got it, thanks very much! Two questions: 1. Isn’t the response arguing that plaintiffs were dishonest in the petition itself, not just in public statements about the ordinance? 2. Under the ordinance, would employers indeed be able to exclude people who are biologically male but who self-identify as female from women’s restrooms? I haven’t thought about this question in the past, and I’d love to hear what people know about how such bans on gender identity discrimination have been interpreted (or how plaintiffs or activists have sought to have them be interpreted). Eugene From: religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu [mailto:religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Allen Asch Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2014 8:29 PM To: religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu Subject: Re: "City subpoenas pastors' sermons in equal rights ordinance case" Prof Volokh, You piqued my interest, so I checked out the "City of Houston's Response in Opposition to Plaintiff's Request for a Temporary Injunction" at http://lexpolitico.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/20140814-Response-in-Oppo.pdf I notice one of the arguments the City makes is that Plaintiffs have "unclean hands" because their petition signatures were gained by dishonest scare tactics about the equal rights ordinance ("Plaintiffs and their associates appear intentionally to have used falsehoods and taken wild liberties with the truth as they sought to frighten people into supporting and signing their referendum petition"). The argument alleges scare tactics about men being allowed in women's restrooms. Without supporting the use of those subpoenas myself, that argument about the scare tactics sounds like the likely source of the subpoena request for those sermons. I hope that helps, Allen Asch -----Original Message----- From: Volokh, Eugene <vol...@law.ucla.edu> To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics (religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu) <religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu> Sent: Tue, Oct 14, 2014 7:59 pm Subject: "City subpoenas pastors' sermons in equal rights ordinance case" Colleagues: Does anyone know the theory on which the subpoenaed information is relevant here? http://www.chron.com/news/politics/houston/article/City-subpoenas-pastors-sermons-in-equal-rights-5822403.php Houston's embattled equal rights ordinance took another legal turn this week when it surfaced that city attorneys, in an unusual step, subpoenaed sermons given by local pastors who oppose the law and are tied to the conservative Christian activists that have sued the city. Opponents of the equal rights ordinance are hoping to force a repeal referendum when they get their day in court in January, claiming City Attorney David Feldman wrongly determined they had not gathered enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. City attorneys issued subpoenas last month during the case's discovery phase, seeking, among other communications, "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." The subpoenas were issued to several high-profile pastors and religious leaders who have been vocal in opposing the ordinance. The Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a motion on behalf of the pastors seeking to quash the subpoenas. The motion to quash is at http://www.adfmedia.org/files/WoodfillQuashMotion.pdf . Thanks, Eugene _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others. _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
_______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
