Strict Constructionists Of Texas Wig Out - 2

"It says what?"

Sometimes lawmakers work too hard.

We caught one example some years ago in Texas.

Evidently they were panicking about gay marriage and rushed some words out to become law words.

Let's review one such instance.

The Dredd Blog post we are taking a look at, for history's sake, happened on or about this date in 2009.

The article is no longer at the original URL address on the Star Telegram newspaper in Fort Worth, Texas, but there are other papers/sites that picked it up too (McClatchey, Freedom To Marry).

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This blog may owe an apology for indicating that the law under which a professor was arrested in his own home was "The Stupidest Law In The Nation".

Well there is a new stupid kid on the block, the Texas Politicians, who have outlawed marriage accidentally.

At least according to the woman running for Texas Attorney General:

Texans: Are you really married?

Maybe not.

Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a Houston lawyer and Democratic candidate for attorney general, says that a 22-word clause in a 2005 constitutional amendment designed to ban gay marriages erroneously endangers the legal status of all marriages in the state.

The amendment, approved by the Texas Legislature and overwhelmingly ratified by Texas voters, declares that "marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman." But the trouble-making phrase, as Radnofsky sees it, is Subsection B, which declares:

"This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage."

(Star Telegram, emphasis added [see also McClatchey, Freedom To Marry]). Everyone has heard about the world renowned strict constructionists of Texas who vehemently complain about judges who do not read the law as it is written, eschewing any excuses for deviating from exactly what it says.

Can you imagine the pretzel contortions they will be doing when they try to explain why strict constructionist ideology does not apply to their lack of command of American English?

A famous lawman from Texas, not Judge Roy L. Bean, infamously said "Childrens do learn", but that does not cover strict constructionists west of the Pecos evidently.

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