Editorial: Houston went too far in sermon subpoenas

LM Otero/AP
Houston Mayor Annise Parker speaks at the Texas Democratic Convention in Dallas, Saturday, June 28, 2014.

In a country founded on the principle of individual freedom — to speak, to gather, to worship — we are right to be ever cautious of the state’s power and to jealously guard against intrusions into our liberties.

That’s why the city of Houston’s recent sweeping subpoena seeking the sermons of five conservative pastors should rankle us all, regardless of political affiliation.

Federal law strictly limits nonprofit churches, and preachers and pastors, from using the pulpit for politics. But there is a long and important tradition in our country of government staying far from the church door and knocking lightly when it must.

That tradition wasn’t respected in Houston, to the discredit of its first openly gay mayor, Annise Parker.

Amid a firestorm of criticism, Parker and City Attorney David Feldman have agreed that the city of Houston’s original subpoenas were overly broad, and they have dialed their demand back a bit. New subpoenas, issued last week, eliminated the request for sermons. But the city still wants “all speeches or presentations” related to the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance — better known as HERO.

Why does the city want this material? In May, Parker led her City Council to approve HERO, which bans discrimination in private and city employment and in housing and city contracting.

Conservative opponents tried to repeal the ordinance through a ballot measure, but the city attorney ruled that they didn’t have enough eligible signatures to be placed on the ballot.

Opponents sued. In response, as part of the case’s discovery phase, the city’s legal office issued subpoenas to five leading pastors opposed to the ordinance. None of the pastors are plaintiffs in the suit.

The subpoenas’ broad nature drew fire immediately. Parker and Feldman quickly distanced themselves from the request for sermons. Parker even passed the buck a little when she said she had been “vilified coast to coast” for a legal document “I know nothing about and would never have read.”

Feldman said he would have worded the subpoena differently but suggested it should not have been construed as “an effort to infringe upon religious beliefs.”

It’s too bad that both the mayor and the city attorney had such little familiarity with a demand of Houston churches as serious as this one.

It’s also too bad that neither seems to appreciate why people might be upset.

The city’s new subpoenas might be worded more softly, but it isn’t clear Houston City Hall is getting the message it should.

Houston’s push for equal rights is admirable. But that push is sullied when government oversteps its bounds and appears to threaten other protections that were secured in our country’s founding.

An appreciation and acknowledgment of that would be welcome.

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