Texas asks U.S. Supreme Court to end California law banning state-funded travel

[Elderberry]

Texas Tribune by Emma Platoff Feb. 10, 2020

After Texas passed a law in 2017 allowing foster care agencies to cite sincerely held religious beliefs to deny placements to gay couples, California banned state-funded travel to the Lone Star State.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to strike down a 2016 California law that bans state-funded travel to states with discriminatory laws — a list Texas landed on nearly three years ago after the Legislature approved a religious-refusal law for adoptions in the state.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, whose office maintains a list of qualifying discriminatory laws, said in June 2017 that the Texas law "allows foster care agencies to discriminate against children in foster care and potentially disqualify LGBT families from the state’s foster and adoption system." The ban prevents California agencies, public universities and boards from funding work-related trips to Texas.

Paxton, who has made religious liberty a top priority of his office, criticized the California statute as an unconstitutional and misguided attempt to police other states.

“California is attempting to punish Texans for respecting the right of conscience for foster care and adoption providers,” he said.

More: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/02/10/texas-asks-scotus-strike-down-california-law-banning-state-travel/

[Free Vulcan]

Unless this violates something statutory I'm not aware of, I may have to take Cali's side on this. It's their tax money to spend or not.

States being forced to spend money out-of-state isn't a good precedent.

[jmyrlefuller]

Unless this violates something statutory I'm not aware of, I may have to take Cali's side on this. It's their tax money to spend or not.

States being forced to spend money out-of-state isn't a good precedent.

This may violate Article IV, which prohibits the states from restricting the free movement of people between the states.

I know in New York they pulled a similar stunt against North Carolina and that prevented a high school from taking part in a sports tournament down there. The team raised the funds on their own, but the state used a technicality to claim that any funds raised would still be classified as "state funds" and barred the team from participating. That might very well be unconstitutional.