Lawmakers, advocates react to Texas House passing private spaces bill

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Lawmakers and advocates on both sides of Senate Bill 8, which would mandate state agencies and political subdivisions “take all reasonable steps” to maintain the sex-segregation of private multiple-occupancy spaces, reacted to its passage Thursday in the Texas House of Representatives.

Five civil rights advocacy and legal groups released a joint statement in opposition to SB 8 Thursday evening: ACLU of Texas, Equality Texas, Texas Freedom Network, Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign.

“This bill is bad for trans and intersex people, bad for cisgender people, bad for business, bad for public health and safety, and bad for Texas. Transgender people have always been here and always will be.”

Ash Hall, ACLU-TX

Ash Hall, ACLU-TX’s LGBTQIA+ policy and advocacy strategist, called it “unconscionable and unconstitutional” that the House passed SB 8. They said that the bill could encourage “gender policing.”

“Texans, including the transgender community, should be able to safely use public facilities that align with our gender identities as a basic matter of respect, safety, and privacy,” they said. “This law puts anyone at risk who doesn’t seem masculine or feminine enough to a random stranger, including the cisgender girls and women this bill purports to protect. Some people might forgo using public restrooms entirely out of fear for their safety, even if it endangers their health.”

Mary Elizabeth Castle, government relations director for conservative religious lobbying group Texas Values, celebrated the bill’s passage on social media Thursday:

“Today Texas made a historic move in making sure that no woman or little girl has to look over her shoulder with fear when she is in the locker room, restroom, or shower because a man has been allowed to wrongfully enter that space,” Castle said. “I thank Governor Abbott and other state leaders for being strong in passing the Texas Women’s Privacy Act before the calendar year is over. ”

“Our Texas legislature has made the message loud and clear: You don’t mess with Texas women and their dignity.”

Mary Elizabeth Castle, Texas Values

House Democrats also issued a press release, in which they condemned SB 8 and said it would “create bathroom witch hunts for political profit.” They noted that House Republicans rejected amendments that the release calls “commonsense safeguards to protect against false and frivolous accusations and protect victims of harassment and discrimination.”

“While the legislature can do more to get aid to victims and prevent future disasters like the July 4th floods, more to address skyrocketing property taxes, and more to lower food costs and protect Texans from losing their homes due to economic uncertainty, Republicans are wasting taxpayer dollars on legislation that invites Texans to spy on and sue each other.”

Texas House Minority Leader Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston

Texas House LGBTQ Caucus Chair Rep. Jessica González, D-Dallas, said in the release that while legislation targeting transgender Texans wasn’t new, the House Republicans’ “weaponization” of parliamentary procedure to silence dissent was.

“Our constituents, our communities, and our trans family deserved to be represented on the House floor. Today, their right to representation was stripped away from them, but let me be clear – Texas House LGBTQ Caucus members will never stop working to represent their constituents, and fighting back against any attacks on trans Texans,” she said.

What’s next?

Since the bill was amended in the House, the Texas Senate will need to approve those changes. Bill author Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, called the House’s passage a victory over “gender ideology” on social media, and signaled that the Senate would likely fast-track the amended version.

“No more men in women’s private spaces in Texas,” he said. “Our great state will not bend to the left’s delusions, and with the passage of SB 8 we are ensuring the safety of all the daughters and future daughters of Texas.”

If the Senate approves the amendment, it will go to Gov. Greg Abbott for final approval. He also celebrated SB 8 in a post Thursday.

If enacted, SB 8 will go into effect 90 days after the current special session ends.

Bill claims immunity from ‘inevitable’ legal challenges

In a separate release from the opposition’s joint release, ACLU-TX said federal courts have “repeatedly ruled” against similar laws in other states for violating the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which requires equal treatment under the law.

Since the US Supreme Court’s 1803 decision in Marbury v. Madison, state and federal laws have faced legal challenges to determine if they violate the Constitution. This long-standing aspect of American law is judicial review. Texas is no stranger to this and has challenged federal laws in the past — many of the state’s attorney generals built their political careers on such challenges.

However, SB 8’s language claims that no court, including the Texas Supreme Court or SCOTUS, can hear challenges to it or enjoin the state from enforcing it. Texas and California have years-old laws with similar provisions, which are still in effect.

While the ACLU hasn’t said if it intends to sue Texas over SB 8, it provided KXAN with an eight-page legal analysis of SB 8. In it, the organization’s attorneys said that the bill “flouts basic principles of judicial review and separation of powers” that show the “unconstitutionality and deeply discriminatory nature of this bill.”

“The Legislature cannot prohibit courts from declaring a statute unconstitutional, nor can it prevent individuals from seeking judicial relief under the U.S. or Texas Constitutions,” the analysis reads. “Ironically, the bill itself acknowledges its own vulnerabilities by including language … that permits any defendant to raise constitutional claims ‘as a defense to liability’ — a tacit admission that challenges will be inevitable and that at least some provisions of the bill might be unconstitutional.”