Vice misrepresents comments from Texas AG, rips him for it
June 30, 2022
Vice is outraged that a state Attorney General would be willing to uphold and defend state law. Clearly, we’re out of step with progressive opinion because we thought that’s what state law officers were for, what they got their salary for.
State-level politicians decide what the law is, Attorneys General are the people who actually pursue those laws in the courts, right?
But that’s not quite what the message is here:
“Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he’s willing to defend Texas’ law banning ‘sodomy,’ which was overturned by the landmark Lawrence v. Texas case, if the Supreme Court rules that the states should be able to regulate issues such as sex, birth control, and same-sex marriage,” the piece says.
We would rather hope so, yes. Not because we’ve any argument in favor of this particular law – nor against it, for the law itself isn’t our point at all. Vice makes its point clear:
“‘In an appearance on NewsNation Saturday, Paxton was asked if he would “feel comfortable defending a law that once again outlawed sodomy,’ as well as gay marriage and birth control.
“Yeah…” he said.
And that’s the point we’re supposed to take away. Except Paxton went on:
Asked specifically about Lawrence v. Texas, a 2003 Supreme Court ruling that overturned a state anti-sodomy law and made all such laws invalid nationwide, Paxton said: “My job is to defend state law and I’ll continue to do that. That is my job under the Constitution and I’m certainly willing and able to do that.”
And that’s the actual answer he gave. Which was that as AG his job is to uphold the laws the politicians have passed. So, if that were the law then he’d uphold it.
Which is, we think, about the way we’d all like it to be, isn’t it?
Vice is one of the major new media operations. The cable channel reaches 60 million US homes, the magazine has a 900,000 distribution, and the website gains some 27 million visits a month. Which is large enough to perhaps grasp the basics of the system.
The Texas Attorney General has just indicated that he’s willing to support Texas law. Rather than that being a problem, that’s the point of his job.