City officials try to distance themselves from sermon subpoenas After outcry, mayor and city attorney appear to back off the request, which Parker terms 'overly broad'

Amid outrage from religious groups, Mayor Annise Parker and City Attorney David Feldman on Wednesday appeared to back off a subpoena request for the sermons of certain ministers opposed to the city's equal rights ordinance, with Parker calling the request "overly broad."

The subpoena, handed down to five pastors and religious leaders last month, came to light this week when attorneys for the group of pastors filed a motion to quash the request. The pastors are closely tied to Christian conservative activists who sued the Parker administration this summer when the city announced the group had failed to gather enough valid signatures to force a repeal referendum. The subpoenas were issued as part of the discovery phase in that case, which will be heard in district court in January.

Legal experts noted the Parker administration likely would face an uphill battle obtaining the sermons, which are offered broad protections under the law.

Though Feldman stood behind the subpoena in an interview Tuesday, he and Parker distanced themselves from the request during a news conference Wednesday, calling the wording problematic. Feldman said the city would clarify its request in its response to the pastors' motion.

"There's no question the wording was overly broad," Parker said. "But I also think there was some deliberate misinterpretation on the other side."

The subpoenas have drawn national attention, prompting Christian conservative groups to condemn the request as governmental overreach. U.S. Sen Ted Cruz issued a statement Wednesday, saying Parker "should be ashamed." Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott late Wednesday sent a letter urging the city to withdraw the subpoena.

"In good faith, I hope you merely failed to anticipate how inappropriately aggressive your lawyers would be," Abbott said in the letter. "Many, however, believe your actions reflect the city government's hostility to religious beliefs that do not align with city policies."

Parker's stance Wednesday likely was due to outside pressure, plaintiff Jared Woodfill said.

"Public outcry has shamed the mayor into doing the right thing," he said.

'Vilified coast to coast'

Parker and Feldman dismissed Woodfill's assertion that the subpoena order had come directly from the mayor's office, saying they both found out about the request this week. Feldman said that although he is monitoring the case, the subpoena was drafted by pro-bono attorneys helping to handle the lawsuit.

"Let me just say that one word in a very long legal document which I know nothing about and would never have read and I'm vilified coast to coast," Parker said. "It's a normal day at the office for me."

The intent of the subpoena, Feldman said, simply was to gather all communications between pastors about the signature-gathering instructions, a potentially key point in the lawsuit opponents have brought against the city.

The use of the word "sermons" was a distraction from that, Feldman said.

"I wouldn't have worded it that way myself," the city attorney said. "It's unfortunate that it has been construed as some effort to infringe upon religious liberty."

Interference claim

Opponents of the equal rights ordinance, passed by City Council last spring, sued the city in August after Feldman announced they had failed to gather enough valid signatures to force a repeal referendum. Opponents claim the city attorney interfered in the signature verification process and illegally rejected the petition.

Signatures denied

Critics largely take issue with the rights extended to gay and transgender residents under the ordinance banning discrimination among businesses that serve the public, private employers, in housing and in city employment and city contracting. Religious institutions are exempt. Parker has agreed not to enforce the ordinance until the court issues a decision in the lawsuit, likely sometime next year.

Opponents pledged to take the issue to voters.

City Secretary Anna Russell initially counted enough signatures to qualify the opponents' petition this summer, with about 600 more than the required 17,269 signatures to get a referendum on the November ballot.

Feldman then looked through all of the petition pages to see if those who gathered signatures met city charter requirements - namely, whether signature gatherers were Houston residents and whether they signed the petition pages.

That process disqualified more than half the 5,199 pages. In their suit, opponents claimed Russell's original count should be the most important one and alleged Feldman had inserted himself into the process illegally.

The subpoenas, Feldman said Wednesday, are intended to establish what rules signature gatherers were told to follow and request a wide range of communications, including any information about payments and incentives offered to people contracted to circulate the petitions and the tax information associated with those payments.

'Political speech'

On Tuesday, however, Feldman said the sermons were relevant because the pastors were injecting politics into religion.

"If someone is speaking from the pulpit and it's political speech, then it's not going to be protected," Feldman said.

The subpoenas were issued to five local pastors or religious leaders, none of whom is party to the lawsuit: Dave Welch, Hernan Castano, Magda Hermida, Khanh Huynh and Steve Riggle. The Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal organization known for its role in defending same-sex marriage bans, is representing the pastors in an attempt to quash the request.

City attorneys are drafting a response but have not indicated they will drop the subpoenas.