The Texas Supreme Court has suspended the enforcement of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) and ordered the Houston City Council to repeal the ordinance or place it up for a vote in the November city elections.
“We agree with the Relators that the City Secretary certified their petition and thereby invoked the City Council’s ministerial duty to reconsider and repeal the ordinance or submit it to popular vote,” the Texas Supreme Court wrote in a per curiam opinion. “The legislative power reserved to the people of Houston is not being honored.”
The city’s equal right ordinance bans discrimination based not just on sexual orientation and gender identity but also, as federal laws do, sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, pregnancy and genetic information, as well as family, marital or military status.
The Houston Chronicle reported that opponents sued the city, complaining that City Secretary Anna Russell had determined that petitioners had collected enough signatures to force a repeal measure onto the ballot, but had been overridden by Mayor Annise Parker and then-City Attorney David Feldman, whose staff determined many of the valid signatures were on invalid petition pages.
One of the plaintiffs, former Harris County Republican Party chief Jared Woodfill, called the ruling “a huge victory for the people of the city of Houston.” He called on Parker, the first openly gay leader of a major American city, to apologize to the public.
A “disappointed” Parker said she thought the court had erred in its “eleventh hour ruling” and said her team was consulting with the city’s pro bono outside counsel on “any possible available legal actions.” She said the ordinance resembles measures passed by other major U.S. cities and many local companies.
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, Equality Texas, Texas Freedom Network, Texas Wins, Freedom for All Americans, Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal issues a joint statement:
“HERO embodies Houston values, and we are confident that the voters will uphold it should it end up on the ballot this fall. The fact that enforcement of the ordinance has been suspended, despite it being passed by the City Council, places at risk Houstonians who deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. HERO currently protects 15 different classes, including sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, familial status, marital status, military status, religion, disability, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity and pregnancy—in employment, housing and public accommodations.
“Houston cannot afford to be the one of the largest, most culturally diverse and business-friendly cities in the nation without comprehensive anti-discrimination protections. Discrimination is bad for business. But we believe Houston voters will agree that everyone who lives in and visits this great city has the right to be free from discriminatory and unequal treatment.”
