Houston Mayor Annise Parker Gives Up On Church Subpoenas

If there had been no national blowback, Houston Mayor Annise Parker would not be backing down on this.

The City of Houston will withdraw its controversial subpoenas of five pastors tied to a lawsuit over the city’s equal rights ordinance, Mayor Annise Parkerannounced at a news conference Wednesday.

The announcement came amid a national firestorm about the subpoenas, which have prompted outrage among Christian conservatives. Parker said two meetings yesterday, one with local pastors and another with national clergy, persuaded her to pull the subpoenas altogether.

“The goal of the subpoenas is to defend against the lawsuit and not to provoke a public debate,” Parker said.

Another lie from a mayor who has been caught lying numerous times recently.

The subpoeanaed pastors are not even parties to the lawsuit. The original subpoenas sought sermons, internal church communications, communications between the pastors, and forced the pastors to appear in the law offices of a known leftwing law firm in Houston. The original intent of those subpoenas was to intimidate the pastors, and all others who might dare oppose Parker. But it all blew up in her face. Though it should be noted that no Texas Democrat stepped up to condemn her actions publicly.

Make no mistake, Parker will be back on the attack soon enough. She already tried to attack the state’s marriage laws. She is in her final term as mayor and cannot run again. Her church attack has poisoned any chance that she might win anything statewide. So Parker has a year to cause more trouble, and she likely will.