The Texas Attorney General's Office filed an amicus brief in the Cincinnati-based federal appeals court supporting a Louisville wedding photographer who faces government pressure over her religious convictions. The case represents the latest in Paxton's ongoing efforts to challenge local ordinances that he argues violate constitutional protections for religious expression and force business owners to engage in speech that conflicts with their faith.
The Kentucky case involves a wedding photographer who has faced targeting by local authorities for declining to provide services for events that conflict with her religious beliefs. Paxton's office argues that compelling the photographer to provide services against her religious convictions constitutes government-forced speech in violation of the First Amendment's free speech and religious liberty protections.
The amicus brief specifically challenges what Paxton characterizes as overreaching local government attempts to compel speech from religious business owners. The filing argues that such compulsion violates both the Free Speech Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, contending that governments cannot force individuals to express messages that contradict their sincerely held religious beliefs.
This filing continues Paxton's aggressive defense of religious liberty cases across multiple federal circuits. Since 2022, the Texas AG has joined numerous amicus briefs defending faith-based adoption agencies, religious workers' rights, students' religious liberty, and coaches' prayer rights, establishing a pattern of challenging what he views as government overreach into religious expression.
"Attorney General Paxton joined a Kentucky-led amicus brief before the Cincinnati-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to defend religious liberty and to push back on a local government's attempt to compel speech," according to the March 24, 2023 press release from Paxton's office.
The case comes amid a broader national debate over the intersection of anti-discrimination ordinances and religious liberty protections, with courts increasingly called upon to balance competing constitutional principles. The Supreme Court's recent decisions in cases like Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, which Paxton supported and celebrated as a "major win for religious liberty," have signaled increased protection for religious expression in public settings.
The Sixth Circuit's decision in this case could provide important precedent for how courts balance local anti-discrimination efforts against First Amendment protections, particularly in cases involving religious business owners who object to providing services for events that conflict with their faith-based beliefs.