After Roe v. Wade ruling, Texas AG Ken Paxton say he would defend reinstating state's sodomy law

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he agrees with Justice Clarence Thomas' recent statement that the U.S. Supreme Court should reexamine its earlier rulings legalizing same-sex marriage and intimacy.

Paxton, a Republican, made the comments last Friday during an interview with Leland Vittert on NewNation, a streaming-only newscast. The AG was weighing in on the conservative-dominated high court's decision earlier that day to overturn Roe v. Wade, a move that undid nearly 50 years of legal protection for abortion.

In a concurring opinion, Justice Thomas wrote that the court also should consider revisiting Griswold v. Connecticut, Lawrence v. Texas, and Obergefell v. Hodges — cases that legalized contraceptives and same-sex intimacy and marriage.

NEW: The Attorney General of Texas, Ken Paxton (R), just said that the Supreme Court should overturn Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down laws that banned LGBTQ people from having sex. If this happened, 16 states have laws banning “sodomy” that would immediately go into effect.

— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) June 28, 2022

"The Supreme Court has stepped into issues that I don't think there was any constitutional provision dealing with," Paxton said to Vittert when asked about whether the AG would consider defending a law that questioned those court cases. "They were legislative issues, and this is one of those issues. And there may be more. It would depend on the issue and dependent on what state law had said at the time."

Vittert then asked Paxton to clarify his position.

"You wouldn't rule out that if the state legislature passed the same law that Lawrence overturned on sodomy, you wouldn't have any problem then defending that and taking that case back to the Supreme Court?" Vittert asked the Texas Republican.

"Look, my job is to defend state law and I'll continue to do that," responded Paxton. "That is my job under the Constitution and I'm certainly willing and able to do that," Paxton said.

The ACLU and others are currently suing Paxton and the State of Texas in response to Texas's abortion ban.  A state court blocked Texas' pre-Roe ban, allowing abortions in Texas to resume  for the time being.

The pro-abortion left is—as expected—now suing me and the State of Texas to block our state’s pro-life laws. I anticipated this and am ready. They will lose. Texas laws defending the unborn will win. #RoeVsWade

— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) June 27, 2022

In a tweet, Paxton said he anticipated the "pro-abortion left" to file a suit, avowing that "Texas laws defending the unborn will win."

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